I love poking around the Internet, finding new patterns and learning new stitches. Everything gets incorporated into the next pet blanket I make! I don’t like having to “sign up” at sites, even if it’s free. I like the sites that welcome everyone in and let you explore without even having to enter an email address. With this in mind, I’ve really focused this list on websites from some of the major yarn companies. They are happy to provide lots of patterns, advice, tips and tricks. After all, the more project you take on, the more yarn you buy!
These five sites are worth checking out since they have patterns that are completely free of charge and cover both knitting and crochet. I also found that the patterns were easy to print out and were super clear to follow. I love finding a new technique or a new stitch and then planning out my next pet blanket!
Yarnspirations.com
Yarnspirations covers some of the very top yarn brands, including Red Heart, Caron, Bernat and more. This site provides many free and easy patterns, which I found nicely organized, making the perfect pattern easy to find. They can be sorted by skill level and even by brand of yarn, in case there’s a particular type you love (we all have our favorites!). I also liked how the patterns were formatted, proving all the info you need and making them easy to print, .
LionBrand.com
This site has tons of free patterns as well, which are sorted by type and skill level. I found some other interesting tools, including a guide to know how much yarn would be needed for a variety of project types and videos covering how to knit and crochet. I also found some fun patterns specific to holidays, which gave me some great ideas to try!
PlymouthYarn.com
This site also had a good number of patterns, which can be downloaded for free as a easy-to-print PDF. They didn’t have the volume of the previous sites, but I liked to be able to quickly scan the thumbnail pictures to get ideas. I found patterns that I didn’t know I wanted before I saw the pictures!
Yarn.com
The patterns at this site were not all free, but you can do a search for “free patterns” and get quite a long list of results. I liked that they had a wide variety of “kits” for sale to make blankets, baby items, etc. I also enjoyed learning about the crafts of Weaving and Spinning at this site. It may be a new area for me to expand into (when I find some time!).
If you know of a great website, please consider sharing it with your fellow CFC volunteers at our Facebook Group, “The Comfort for Critters Team”. See you there!
