by Stephanie A. Smith

Created on: February 16, 2007   Last Updated: September 15, 2010

Out of Ideas? Need a crochet fix? Have no money to buy patterns? Here's are a few solutions for you.

The library can be a great place to find patterns. Every library has at least a few pattern books that you can check out. Most of these will usually be afghan or doily books, but some of the best ideas I have had for clothing patterns have come from these kinds of books. My own wedding dress was designed from a tablecloth motif!

Some of the best patterns can be gotten from crochet magazines. The magazines I have checked out so far are: Interweave Crochet, Crochet!, Crochet World, and Crochet Today. The first three will send you one issue free to try it out. Subscriptions are usually about $21 for a year, but you can just mark the invoice "cancel" of you don't have the money when the bill is due.

There is a fine selection of free patterns and cheap-to-buy patterns all over the Internet. The yarn companies also offer patterns on-line. Here are a few of those.

Garn Studios Drops Design: www.garnstudio.com

Garn Studios offers free crochet and knitting patterns on their site. They also have their own line of yarn. All of the patterns are free, and they are gorgeous. Most of the issues of Crochet Magazine feature one of their patterns (hey, free advertising!).

Lion Brand Yarn: www.lionbrandyarn.com

This is a great site for finding free patterns. Some of the patterns on this site are paid patterns, but they are between $0.99 and $2.50. You have to be a member to get to the patterns, but membership is free. The patterns even have an area on them where you can order the exact materials directly from Lion-brand.

When you sign up, you have the opportunity to receive a free issue of Crochet Magazine-take it, if you don't want the magazine when your free issue arrives, just write "cancel" on the bill and send it back to them.

Coats and Clark: www.coatsandclark.com

This is another great site for patterns and such 100% free, no membership required. Of course, you can also buy the yarn you need there. Coats and Clark makes the Red Heart and Aunt Lydia's lines

Of course, you can always just search for "crochet patterns", or "free crochet pattern". This will show you many nice patterns that people put on-line for themselves. You can narrow down these results by adding in another keyword like "rose" or "skirt".

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