Finding Knitting Stitch Patterns (And Inspiration, Too)

Welcome to day four of Shawl Design for Beginners! We all love to use different knitting stitch patterns in our knitting projects – we’re bored with knitting garter stitch scarves after a while, aren’t we? This is where stitch patterns become interesting – so how to find, choose and use them in your knitting projects?

This post is also part of the Complete Guide to Lace Knitting.

Stitch Dictionaries

Stitch dictionaries are what the name suggests: dictionaries for knitting patterns. They usually come with either charts or written instructions, or ideally both, and pictures of the result (a swatch).

The ones I use most are Barbara Walker’s Treasury of Knitting Patterns (all volumes), the Estonian stitch dictionary Pitsilised Koekirjad by Leili Reiman, and some Austrian local publications (the latter mostly for my Alpine knitting patterns).

Knitting Stitch Patterns On The Net

Here’s a list of free stitch pattern resources on the net for you to start browsing: A (W) denotes written instructions, (C) denotes charts, and (I) means there are images for each stitch pattern.

http://freeknitstitches.com/ (I) (C)

http://www.knittingonthenet.com/stitches.htm (I) (W)

http://www.craftcookie.com/ (I) (C) (W)

https://www.yarnspirations.com/stitch­-gallery (I) (W)

http://purlavenue.com/stitchinary (I) (W)

http://www.knitca.com (I) (C) (W)

http://www.knittingstitchpatterns.com/ (I) (W)

http://knithit.com/ (I) (W)

http://www.knittingfool.com (I) (C) (W)

Pinterest

Pinterest is a comprehensive method of browsing stitch patterns visually. One of my Pinterest boards, Stitch Patterns, is devoted to knitting and crochet stitch patterns only.

Instagram

Instagram can be a true gem when looking for stitch patterns, too: I especially like to watch Willashalit‘s posts there – here account is an awesome source of inspiration.

Enjoy browsing all these stitch pattern collections!