Where can I find free knitting patterns?

Finding free knitting patterns can be tricky if you don’t know where to look for good quality patterns. Here are 4 different places where you can find free knitting patterns for yourself, for gifts, or just to practice with. 

Ravelry

If you’re not yet familiar with Ravelry — it’s been described as Facebook for knitters and crocheters. Your profile on the site is free, as is posting your own projects, being part of groups, and searching and downloading (free) patterns. Basically, you only pay when you start buying patterns.

Once you’re registered on Ravelry, click on “patterns” in the top left corner. You can then search as specifically as you want down to yarn weight or simply type in “scarf”, for example. If you look on the menu that opens on the left, you’ll see all the different categories you can choose from. Find the “free” button and click it. You will then be shown all the free patterns which are hosted either on the Ravelry site itself or on a third party website. These websites are usually owned by the designer of the pattern.

All you need to do then is to click “download” and voila! A PDF file with the pattern is downloaded and you can start knitting!

Pinterest

Pinterest is another great site to find free patterns on. Simply search “free knitting pattern for” and then whatever you want to make. From dishcloths to toys and everything in-between, if you can knit it, you’ll find it on Pinterest. However, not all the pictures are linked to the respective patterns, so you need to keep that in mind.

To get the pattern from Pinterest, however, click on the pin showing the photo of the project you’d like to make and then, when it has opened on its own page, click it again. It will then take you to the pattern page. If you see something that you want to make, but its not exactly what you’ve been looking for, click on the pin and then scroll down. You’ll see that Pinterest gives you a range of similar pins which you can then also choose from.

Tip: Try to keep the type of knitting projects on separate pin boards from the start - that makes it much easier to find something specific than if you dump everything into one board and have to sift through everything to find that one pattern you’re ready to work on.

Yarn and wool manufacturers and designers' websites

Many of the yarn and wool manufacturers — especially the commercial ones — have some free patterns available on their websites along with paid patterns, for example, Vogue Knitting. Some of the websites you can try are:

• Drops Design/Garnstudio: With over 8 000 patterns Garnstudio.com is definitely another go-to when you’re in search of a new, free pattern.

• The designer Stephen West: While most of his patterns are paid patterns, but there are a few free ones as well.
• All Free Knitting: Just like the name says, this site contains hundreds of patterns that are free and where you can browse to your heart’s content.

The KnitPal newsletter and Facebook Group

Of course, you can always sign up for the KnitPal newsletter by clicking here and also join our growing Facebook community by clicking here. Not only will you find some free patterns, you will also get to know some other knitters (and show off your projects)! If you are interested in sports, all Free and affordable team spirit patterns can be found here.

Tips:

• The most important thing to keep in mind is to only work with quality patterns. The last thing you want to do is work with patterns that are full of errors!
• Print the pattern out in order to make notes, highlights, etc. on the pattern. You can always re-use the pattern again, so don’t worry about wasting paper. You can also print it two-sided when you start working with longer patterns and knitting charts.