Reading Russian is not

something I have ever managed to learn to do.
It hasn't been necessary. Russians seem to manage their own disasters without help from the international community or, if they need help, they seem to rub along in their versions of English or German or some other language - Chinese perhaps.
This is really rather a pity. It isn't that I want to read War and Peace in the original - I don't - but there does seem to be a very interesting crafty site that I would like to at least be able to navigate and thus help someone else. 
Yes, I do know about "Google Translate" but knitting and crochet instructions are something that are even less likely to come out making any sort of sense. Some things just do not translate well into other languages. This one doesn't seem to want to translate at all - not even into German. Mind you, I probably wouldn't understand the German but at least I might make some sort of sense of it if I had my big German dictionary to hand.
But there are some diagrams for the crochet and I can pass those on to a friend I know will be interested.
It made me realise all over again how eminently sensible the Japanese have been to ensure that there is a standard diagrammatic format for all knitting and crochet patterns. I can follow those with minimal translation from the original - nicely provided by someone who lived in Japan for years. She speaks the language fluently and she also "speaks" knitting fluently. It helps.
This does not solve the problem for the person in the supermarket. She was a complete stranger but she knew me. Someone had told her I could knit and that I did this...and that...and something else in the knitting world...and of course she "absolutely certain" that I would be able to help. 
Perhaps...or perhaps not. I made no promises but out came one of those fancy phones that let you search the internet. (My pre-dinosaur version only allows me to send and receive calls.)  She showed me the pattern on the website.
    "I found it searching for something else. Isn't it lovely? I really, really want to make it."
I looked. It's not my style but I can see it would suit her. For once it isn't dependent on being able to buy some special sort of  yarn which would be unobtainable here. 
I might be able to work out how to do it but I suggested the first thing to do was find someone who can read Russian and get them to translate it at least roughly so that we can work from there.
I wonder if she will do that?
It's one reason why I only knit what I can design for myself.  Am I lazy? I suppose I am - but Google Translate isn't too good either.