Useful Knitting Resources on the Net

As I promised yesterday, today I’ll give you an overview of my favorite online resources for stitch patterns and techniques. It isn’t a complete list of everything that’s out there by a long stretch (methinks that would be a never-ending blog-post), just a short list of my go-to sites when I’m looking for a better way to do something, need some inspiration or just have to look up that pesky Kitchener stitch once again.

So here we go:

1. New Stitch a Day
   This is a wonderful source for stitch pattern and technique videos. The videos are ordered by categories: Knits and Purls, Lace and Eyelets, Cables and Aran for stitch patterns; Cast ons, Bind offs, Finishing, Tips and Tricks for techniques.One small disadvantage (for me) is the fact, that the videos are for English style knitters, while I knit continental. But since there are also clear written instructions, it’s not a big problem. I actually prefer written instructions and fotos, because I can work at my own pace.
2. Knitty
   Knitty hasn’t just a large collection of free patterns by a multitude of designers, they also have features and articles (something I failed to discover for some time). They are all worth reading, but for our purpose today I gave you the direct link to the „Techniques with Theresa“ section. As the title says, it’s a series of articles featuring knitting techniques with foto tutorials, in depth explanations of why and how things work and a short list of useful links at the end.
3. The Purl Bee
   Over at the Purl bee you will find (next to a huge section of knitting, crochet and sewing patterns) a section of tutorials (also for knitting, sewing and crochet) that are a particular favorite of mine. They are well written and have clear and helpful photography. Here I learned that there are better ways of weaving in ends than just randomly pulling the yarn through a few loops and hoping for the best.
4. Tricksy Knitter
   The Tricksy Knitter has a section of articles that contains some useful information, but my favorites are the charted stitch patterns. Not to many of those (I’d love to see more… greedy me), but they have that nifty feature: The first row is highlighted and you just click anywhere on the chart to highlight the next row and so on. Great if you are an online-knitter like me – it’s so easy to lose count when knitting directly from the screen.
5. The Walker Treasury Project
   The „Treasuries of Knitting Patterns“ the great Barbara Walker has compiled in four books are one of the most comprehensive sources for stitch patterns I know of. Sometimes, though, the mostly black-and-white and small pictures are not really helpful in figuring out how a particular pattern really looks like That’s where the Walker Treasury Project comes in. They are gathering high-quality, color photos of all the patterns in all the Treasury books (including Mosaic Knitting) and putting them on the internet as a visual aide to this wonderful collection. So you’d still have to get your hands on the particular book, but they are totally worth owning anyway.
6. Knitting Daily
   Loads and loads of knitting tutorials and patterns in different formats (text, foto, video). Just use the search function and see what turns up (I’ve linked you to the search results for ‘tutorial’). You can also download their free e-book with experts’ tips on knitting techniques.
7. TechKnitter
   My absolute and total favorite when it comes to knitting techniques: The TechKnitter not only explains and teaches the well-known, time-honored methods of doing things, but also figures out how to do them in different, simpler or more effective ways. If you’ve never heard of or used this blog (though I can’t imagine how you managed…): Stop reading. Right. Now. And put a bookmark on that site. You’ll want to go back there whenever you come across a problem in your knitting, believe me.
8. Nadelspiel
   How could I forget this site?!? It has a wealth of videos (continental style) – everything from basic knitting stitches for beginners to complicated stitch patterns, technique videos and complete knitting patterns (you have to pay for some of those). The videos are in German, but you usually don’t have to understand the audio to get what she’s doing in the video.
9. Vintage patterns
   (I thought I’d throw in a few vintage pattern sites for good measure.)

1. Grandmother’s Pattern Book
   Fancy stitch patterns as well as complete knitting patterns from the 1800′s to the 1950′s. Not ‘translated’ for modern knitters though, so you’d better have some experience in working with vintage patterns or the patience and strength of mind to put up with a lot of confusion and subsequent frogging.
2. Home Work 1891
   Over 100 lace edgings, inserts and patterns from „Home Work“ 1891. I head over there whenever I feel the need for some good, oldfashioned and romantic lace knitting.
3. Projekt Gutenberg
   The Gutenberg Project is dedicated to making antique and vintage books available in different electronic formats. I’ve linked you to the Knitting and Crochet section – but you can find more knitting related books by using the different search options. (Try a title search with ‘knitting’ or ‘lace’)

That’s it from me. I hope, some of you have found some useful information and one or two sources you haven’t used before.

On the other hand: What are your favorite online resources for knitting? I’d be happy if you point me to sites I might have forgotten to add or even haven’t found yet.

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