Knitting Resources
Knitters in this decade are so lucky. We have resources - free ones! - available at our fingertips. Let's say we've been looking through all our knitting books and just can't find what we're looking for. We can just google it. We could go onto Ravelry.com and search for it in Ravelry's extensive pattern collection.We could join the Knitting Daily site, sponsored by Interweave Knits, for more patterns, both free and for sale.
A recent google search for free sock patterns yielded 363,000 results. Now, that's a lot of socks! Hats? 3,050,000 results! Mittens? 733,000 patterns. Now, of course, some of them are duplicate patterns, but surely there must be a few of them that are just what you might be looking for.
I am always so surprised when a customer comes into the shop looking to buy a pattern for a simple hat, when there are so many available just ready for printing.
I like using Ravelry the best. Knitters on Ravelry share their projects, and when a pattern is chosen, their completed projects are shown along with the original. It gives you ideas for different yarns, colours, how it might look on you.
This is a little dress I would like to make for my LhasaPoo Emma - you know, the one who ate the macadamia nuts last April and scared the life out of Mr Knits and me. If you click on the photo, you will see a screenshot I took of the Ravelry page with the ratings from other knitters, the number of completed projects, errata information if applicable.
Speaking of errata, if I have a problem with a pattern not working out, I google the pattern name and the word errata. Bingo, if there is a problem with the pattern, the errata is usually on the web. Quite often, before I start knitting, I will google the pattern name just to make sure there isn't a problem. Doing this saves so much time and prevents so much frustration.
Knitting Daily, Berroco, Classic Elite all send out weekly emails with notifications and links to free patterns on their websites. If you're concerned about getting spammed by these companies, don't worry. They don't sell your email address, and you always could set up a separate email account for just these companies.
I still find knitting books and magazines essential to my knitting. The internet just adds the extra inspiration to create the perfect project.
We are indeed a lucky bunch of knitters, aren't we?
A recent google search for free sock patterns yielded 363,000 results. Now, that's a lot of socks! Hats? 3,050,000 results! Mittens? 733,000 patterns. Now, of course, some of them are duplicate patterns, but surely there must be a few of them that are just what you might be looking for.
I am always so surprised when a customer comes into the shop looking to buy a pattern for a simple hat, when there are so many available just ready for printing.
I like using Ravelry the best. Knitters on Ravelry share their projects, and when a pattern is chosen, their completed projects are shown along with the original. It gives you ideas for different yarns, colours, how it might look on you.
This is a little dress I would like to make for my LhasaPoo Emma - you know, the one who ate the macadamia nuts last April and scared the life out of Mr Knits and me. If you click on the photo, you will see a screenshot I took of the Ravelry page with the ratings from other knitters, the number of completed projects, errata information if applicable.
Speaking of errata, if I have a problem with a pattern not working out, I google the pattern name and the word errata. Bingo, if there is a problem with the pattern, the errata is usually on the web. Quite often, before I start knitting, I will google the pattern name just to make sure there isn't a problem. Doing this saves so much time and prevents so much frustration.
Knitting Daily, Berroco, Classic Elite all send out weekly emails with notifications and links to free patterns on their websites. If you're concerned about getting spammed by these companies, don't worry. They don't sell your email address, and you always could set up a separate email account for just these companies.
I still find knitting books and magazines essential to my knitting. The internet just adds the extra inspiration to create the perfect project.
We are indeed a lucky bunch of knitters, aren't we?
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