I finally remembered that I had a blog that I had abandoned for way too long. It is funny how our lives change and evolve and sometimes in the chaos, good things get left behind and forgotten. Suddenly life throws things at you that get you all revved up again and so here I am. Now that is said, I am ready to share a great way to get FREE patterns and info on knitting.
Do you have an E-reader? A NookColor is my reader of choice but Kindles are great too. Kindle e-books are sold on Amazon.com. I have recently found some great FREE knitting books that you can download (yes you can download them for free).
You say you don't have a Kindle? Neither do I and my NookColor is not compatible with the Amazon e-files (bummer). But that hasn't stopped me from taking advantage of getting free e-books. You can download for FREE (I love that word), the Kindle reader for PC and other devices> Free Kindle Reading Apps
Download and read Kindle books on your favorite device--no Kindle required.
Kindle Reading Apps: Kindle Cloud Reader | PC | Mac | Android | iPhone | BlackBerry | iPad |Windows Phone 7
I have the reading app for PC, but if I had a smart phone or iPad I would definitely download the reader onto them too. I take my knitting and knitting patterns every where with me. With my laptop and the PC Kindle reader, I can read off line when ever I don't have WiFi (yes I actually go places and spend time away from my WiFi, it isn't easy but if I plan ahead, I don't miss it too much). That is the reason that I stick with the PC reader and don't go to the Kindle Cloud Reader. But they are all good and you can choose the one that works best for you. Now what you've been waiting for....the rest of the FREE STUFF!
Start your search at Amazon.com and in the search box at the top of their page choose the Kindle store from the little drop down box, then plug in the word knitting. Another drop box will come down with lots of choices so click on the one you are most interested in. I just left the word knitting in the search box and clicked go...that brought up a lot of choices. The next thing you want to do to find the free stuff is look to the right of the page and find the "Sort by" drop down box. Click it and choose the filter "Price: Low to High". This brings up all the things that are FREE first.
Prepare to be amazed! There are quite a few patterns that are absolutely free. If you love very old patterns you will really LOVE LOVE LOVE this because there are a lot of them for free. Be aware though that the method that they use to change the printed book to the e-book form has a few little quirks that you have to look past or figure out. Also the really old patterns have language and abbreviations that you might find hard to understand...but hey, it's FREE and could be a great learning experience (it is for me, I enjoy the challenge). If you don't find something you like for free, there are also some for very low prices. Also you might enjoy some mysteries written by and about knitters, I enjoy them too.
You can also go to Barns and Noble.com and start the process all over again and see what they have for free. They are the one that sells the NookColor reader. I don't think they have the free reader app downloads like Amazon but if you have a reader that you can download PDF or EPUB files you should be able to download the free books. That is why my NookColor was my choice over buying a Kindle, because you can download any PDF or EPUB files and read them on your Nook. With a Kindle I think you can only download books from Amazon. The way technology changes so fast, that might not still be true so always do your research.
Your local public library is also a good source of free patterns. Have you checked out (no pun intended) your library's electronic books? My library has books that download for Kindles and also books that are PDF and EPUB files that I can download to my NookColor.
There are lots of great ways to find FREE patterns...just "google" for free knitting patterns online or go "yard sale-ing" for hard coppies and pick up a box of magazines for a dollar (that's almost free). If you want to read them on your e-reader, you can scan them and save the file as a PDF then download to your e-reader.
Life is a challenge sometimes to be able to have things that I love without spending money that I don't have. The electronic age is making this a lot easier now with all the things you can find on-line. Also the lack of space used to be a problem for me but now I can store soooooooooo many patterns on a flash drive and be able to find them with an easy file system. Boy is that a life saver!
Oh I almost forgot to mention a new craze out there on the web... PINTEREST.
If you would like to follow me on Pinterest you can find me as Sue Solana.
