Some of you may wonder why I keep harping on and on about patterns and what they exactly are. Simply put, patterns are blueprints for your knitting projects. Someone somewhere has applied their mind and written down the exact number of rows and stitches, mapped out the design and thought of every specification you may need to knit a beautiful project without breaking into a sweat. I have come to realise that the success of a knitted project is as much in the hands of the pattern designer as it is in the hands of a knitter. So if you ask me, it is always better to find a good pattern before starting anything new rather than leaving it on a wing and a prayer. Best of all, you can always adapt the pattern to suit your needs, use it with a yarn you like and make the project in a size that works for you. I’ll show you how to do that as we go along.

My mother says she had my grandmother to guide her. I believe the latter owned pattern books she had purchased from her travels abroad. Also, knitting patterns used to be (and maybe still are) published in winter editions of magazines such as Sarita, Vanita, Saheli etc. These days life is much simpler – there are thousands (I do not exaggerate!) of patterns online, both free and paid. Several designers have become legendary for the designs they have created. Just to give an example, Alice Starmore’s Mary Tudor design probably has its own fan club – or should have one if it doesn’t already – it is that famous. I can name drop some more and maybe I will another time, but that isn’t the purpose of this post. I just want to tell you how important a good pattern is to a well-finished knitted project and how fortunate we are that we have thousands of free options.

If you are seriously considering knitting in the long term, I suggest you create an account on Ravelry, which is not only one of the largest communities for knitters and crocheters but is also one of the biggest repositories of free and paid patterns. Other than Ravelry, there are several yarn stores overseas that provide free downloadable patterns on their websites. One of my favourites is Yarnspirations. I frequently use their patterns and the results are always fantastic. Closer home, our very own Vardhaman online store also has a few patterns worth checking out.

Having stressed the importance of finding a good pattern, I leave you with a glimpse of one of the patterns I used and what the end product was

I rest my case.

~P