I find a lot of mine online for free. I haven’t found one that I love enough to BUY yet. I love knitty and I’ve scoured their past “issues.” I also LOVE LOVE LOVE Filati and Rebecca mags. But they’re kind of expensive… OH and occasionally I’ll break down and actually buy a whole book. eep
Wondering if you guys had any ideas for new places to dig some up. 
The library, where you can check out books for free to your heart’s content.
Online there’s, www.knittingpatterncentral.com and www.dailyknitter.com
Yarn company websites have a lot free patterns - Lion, Redheart, Caron, Bernat, Patons, Cascade, Plymouth and several others.
One word - Ravelry. I find all my free ones and the ones I buy there. I use the advanced pattern browser all the time to sort what I want to find.
Yes, LOVE LOVE knittingpatterncentral. And I’ll have to try the advanced hunt through ravelry - haven’t done that yet.
I DID go out and buy yet another new knitting mag today. (I’m a mag hag.) The spring/summer Debbie Bliss. It has some really cute lace sweaters in there…
Ditto what Jan in Ca said: [B]RAVELRY![/B]
Also, great pdf patterns (not free, but reasonably priced) are found at Twist Collective.
[I][/I][B][I]It’s a favorite haunt of mine. [/I][/B]
I am totally into PDF patterns. I do subscribe to Knitters, Interweave Knits and Vogue Knitting…however, I don’t know why. Not for patterns. I think I love reading through the magazines, keeping up with what’s current and fresh in the knitting world. I love the ads. I recently purchased a knitting bowl based on an ad I saw in the current Vogue Knitting!
I agree,[B] Knitty[/B] is fantastic, as well as [B]KnittingPatternsCentral[/B].
You can spend a fortune at Barnes and Noble on knitting books…and Amazon…and KnitPicks…but that’s a dangerous road…
I think as far as books go (for sweaters, that is)…I’ve been happiest with Classic Elite soft cover booklets. Almost 100% of the patterns are genuinely wearable and knittable.
Knittingpatterncentral is one of my favs, too. Bevscountrycottage is another source I use a lot. Bev’s got her own patterns plus links to great websites. Knitpicks has free and reasonable patterns. Knittingpureandsimple is another one. The problem with the books is that I usually only want one or two of the patterns. It’s not worth buying a whole book for them. I think you might be better off buying a single pattern. A simple Google search will give you cool blogs for free patterns. Google mittens for instance and see what sites it comes up with.
Oh - I need to clarify. I bought the books for the instruction - not the patterns. There just happen to be patterns in them that I’ve made - but yeah. No one book has more than 5 patterns I’ll actually try.
Bought the spring/summer Debbie Bliss mag yesterday. I’m making one of those “romance” angel sweaters next! (The yarn only costs $55 instead of the $120 for the other one! That one can wait!)
You don’t have to use the same yarn as in the pattern, there’s usually some good very inexpensive substitutes available. That $55 yarn may well be subbed for something in thr $20-25 range. Maybe $30-40 for the $120 one.
You know what though, I’m still such a beginner that I’m almost scared to use a “substitute” yarn for something as major as a sweater. I think if I had been knitting for a long time and was more familiar with yarns, I could substitute better. Now for a scarf or a hat - I don’t mind using whatever I’ve got on hand. But I want that sweater to look EXACTLY like it does in the picture. :knitting:
I don’t think I’ve ever used the yarn called for in a pattern! I just go by gauge and yarn type. By yarn type I mean I use a smooth yarn if it calls for smooth yarn. You can see what the pattern looks like with lots of different yarns, but look on Ravelry. It’s amazing how most patterns look good in substitutes.
Some day Jan… Some day… And speaking of Ravelry - you’ve got me hooked on looking up specific patterns now. I love how I can search by yarn. Maybe I can get rid of some of my tiny stash! :teehee:
Yeah, cool isn’t it?! Just don’t leave us! Too many have. 
CW - like Jan said, if you search on Ravelry, find a pattern you like, go to the Projects tab and you can see all of the projects other people have made based off of that pattern, most using substitute yarn, needle sizes, and sometimes even modified instructions, and little tweaks that are super helpful, etc.
I am obsessed with Ravelry (2nd to KH of course) and once I figured out the Projects tab, I now refer to it constantly to get an idea on what works and what doesn’t. I get almost all of my patterns from Ravelry and free too!!
Also, I stalk the “KH elders/pros” on Ravelry to see all of their wonderful projects.
Online, at Ravelry and elsewhere, wherever they’re free or reasonable. And the selection is amazing.
I use all of the above and also enjoy Simply Knitting. It is an English magazine and comes with a free gift every month, like needles and other notions. Have made several things from it. I buy it at Joann’s. I have also bought a few knitting books there with my 40% off coupons.
The Yankee Knitter has some good basic patterns I have used more than once, like for socks and a basic roll raglan sweater. Also Elizabeth Lovick sells her lace and gansey patterns on etsy and ravelry, as well as her own website. Just joined ravelry and have found more patterns on there than I could ever use in my lifetime.
I used to use knittingpatterncentral but now pretty much only use Ravelry for patterns. I bought a couple books/mags and found that I was making one or two of the patterns and I felt like that was a waste. I don’t mind paying for the patterns I use - sometimes it’s just a couple bucks but it’s exactly what you’re looking for!
All sorts of places! I do buy magazines cuz I love the pictures. Some books as well on ebay that go for less than $5. I am given lots of books and go to local free store for some patterns.