Mom taught me to knit when I was a wee child, and I've recently decided that if hipsters everywhere were teaching themselves how to knit great things then I could certainly do it if I already knew how to cast on, knit, and purl.

Just this week I've gotten to it again and am, well, addicted. <It's mesmerizing, isn't it?> I'm planning on taking a class, maybe getting some people together in SF, but would like to hear about some of your favorite online resources for knitting how-to's, free and easy patterns, and yarn resources. <I'm also hitting the library, but nearly all the books on knitting are out!>

So far I've found knitty.com which is great, but that's where my well ran dry.
Anyone have any gems to share?
-O.

I love http://www.stitchguide.com to learn how to do specific stitches for knitting and crochet. There are little videos that make it easy to see what you have to do (much better than diagrams).

hey, great site-- very comprehensive, and now in my bookmarks; for knitting, and other needlecrafts.
I appreciate it!

Try www.chicknits.com. Bonne Marie has some great links on there, plus cute free patterns galore. I love her site. Plus she helped me out with something totally non-knitting-related and was very nice about it.

Kay

also http://www.knitty.com and http://knitting.about.com

the about.com site is chock full of pop-ups, but there are some good links from that site to others.

a*

eta: whoops! didn't notice you'd already mentioned knitty. awesome site, no?

Ditto on all of the previously mentioned! Also:
>http://www.lionbrand.com
>http://berroco.com/pl_web_exclusive_index.html
>http://www.knittingpages.com/free%20knitting%20patterns%20index.htm
>http://www.knittingfairy.com/FreePatterns.htm
>http://www.knitwitts.com/workshop.asp
>http://www.wellroundedknitter.com/useful_links.htm

Thanks so very much, you all. Not that I need to add more fuel to my knitting fire, but when I start a project, I feel a need to research the heck out of it.

This is all quite helpful, thanks again!

Looking forward to exploring each of these sites this evening,
-O.

PS. I picked up a book at the library which was helpful to beginners which I can't quite recall right now: The Yarn Girls Guide to (something or other). It's quite helpful, and that bit of the title may be enough to go on with a search.

Check out books too--especially Elizabeth Zimmerman. She taught me an entirely different way to think about construction, design, etc. I don't always love her designs, but her thought process and her sheer mastery of technique is amazing.

I'm not a fan of the Yarn Girls Guide to Simple knits. It doesn't have the best layout (no closeups of the actual yarn used?), the patterns are decent, but not anywhere near original, and it only uses extremely bulky, extremely expensive yarns and doesn't really provide enough information to subsitute your own choice in there.

Plus I have a personal grudge against the authors, the owners of a yarn store in NYC, who are two former lawyers. They used to offer "custom" patterns for sale at their store and on their website in violation of several knitwear designer's copyrights. Not cool.

Elizabetht Zimmerman, eh? I'll definitely look her up. (Thankie!)

Thanks for the extra info about Yarn Girls: I'd found the book easy to use because the patterns were simple and there were photos to go along with them. <As opposed to the simple patterns I'd previous found on the web, w/o photos>
Definitely not cool about the copyright violations- thanks for the heads-up.

-O.

www.yarnware.com is good for finding really unique yarn that's searchble by weight, fiber and several other attributes. They also have patterns but you have to buy them.

if you haven't already, it is worth checking out the websites of contributors to knitty.com. a lot of them keep knitting blogs and offer some original free patterns on their sites.

I have free patterns and tips on my website. http://www.knitting-and.com

Sarah :-)

Sarah!!! I love your site!!!
I have been many times and tell people about it all the time.
good to see you around Glitter.

-gg

Sarah:
Great site, thanks very much for telling me about it. Very helpful, chock full of links!
-O.