Free Baby Knitting Patterns

If you're handy with a pair of needles and are looking for a great baby gift, you might consider finding some free baby knitting patterns first.

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I guess this happens to everyone when they reach a certain age, but it seems to me like I know more people who are currently pregnant than I ever have before in my life. Because I’m an avid crafter, I want to be able to give each of these babies something homemade, as is the tradition in my family. Because I don’t have a lot of time or a huge budget for yarn, I’m always on the lookout for free baby knitting patterns.

In my experience it has always been a good idea to knit baby a blanket or booties, or at least something that stretches easily. Babies come in all sizes (their heads in particular). You don’t want to spend all that time making something beautiful for baby to wear and then have the baby be born too big to enjoy it.

On the other side, baby might be incredibly small and thus unable to use your baby gift for some time to come. Rather than cause yourself extra stress worrying about if your gift will fit, choose something one-size for gift giving before the baby is born. Babies grow so fast that a gift the family can use for more than a few months is more practical, anyway.

Another tip is to consider the material you are making your gift out of. New moms don’t have a lot of time to hand wash alpaca or other fancy fibers. If you really want the child to get to use your knitted item, consider making it out of something machine washable.

The sources for free knitting patterns abound these days. Visit your local library and look for knitting books and magazines. The only cost you will have for a pattern you love is what it costs to copy the pages of the book or magazine where the pattern appears.

Look beyond the editorial copy in magazines for patterns. Often the yarn companies advertise in these magazines and show a finished project but don’t publish the instructions. You can then go online and look for the pattern from the manufacturer.

Scouting out yarn company websites is a great way to find free patterns. The companies, after all, know the most about their yarn and will produce really beautiful projects that best showcase their fibers.

This is a great option if you have a particular yarn or type of fiber that your really want to work with. You can just search for that yarn company or a company that makes that kind of yarn and find patterns that use it with the click of a button.

Here are some more yarn company sites you can explore:

• Lion Brand, scroll down for patterns for infants.
• Plymouth Yarn, click on a type of yarn for more patterns.
• Caron
• Bernat
• Crystal Palace Yarns

There are also many place you can find free baby knitting patterns that aren’t yarn companies. Here are a few of my favorites:

• Bev’s Country Cottage has knitting, sewing and crochet baby patterns, including patterns for preemies, in the categories of hats, mittens, booties, blankets, bibs, sweaters and more.
• Knitting-Crochet has a smaller selection of high-quality patterns including socks, a christening robe, baby sets and booties that they claim really stay on baby’s feet.
• Knitting Pattern Central has a huge directory of blankets, booties, mittens, clothes, hats, socks and toys from all over the web.
• Knitting on the Net has a smallish but good collection of blankets, booties, hats, sweaters and more.
• Knitting Help has a marvelous collection of pretty patterns arranged by level of difficulty. Some of these are for older babies and come from other sites on the web.

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