So, I was tooling around the intranets trying to find some inspiration for a few balls of Jaeger Matchmaker Merino 4 ply that I purchased during our fall trip to webs. I have 3 balls two in orange and one in brown, or maybe I have two of each. Regardless, my intention was to knit up something Cleveland Brown like for the little babe. However, I am REALLY not in the right mindset to be modifying patterns (recipe for disaster, I can barely read at this point) and the yarn is a fingering weight. Not a lot of pattern support out there for what I am envisioning. I could do a simple striped pullover. But, again, the maths will have to be used to ensure I don’t run out of yarn and I am just not up for it. I could order another color and do a three color pullover with less worry about running out of yarn - but just as much trouble with the maths.

After searching through my back issues of IK and all of my knitting books I went to the google gods to show me some info. Unfortunately during my first pass they were not much of a help. This led me to search all of our great free pattern websites (and some that charge but are reasonable): Knitty, Magknits, The Garter Stitch, Glamprye Knits, Kate Gilbert, Chic Knits, Chiagu, Drops Design. Some of these sites are not really geared toward kids stuff but it was nice to remind myself what a talented crew they are. I wandered over to the Knitter’s Review forums and found a whole topic on free patterns. This led me to a GREAT resource, Knitting Pattern Central, wow - do you all know about this place?!

I also found a bunch of inspiration from some fellow bloggers. Wendy at Knit and Tonic just published a pattern, Drive-Thru, for a worsted weight yarn. The pattern starts at age 2 but if I used the same numbers with fingering weight I could likely get a cute sweater for a wee wee one. A definite possibility. There are some great things happening over at Knitty Bloggy Baby Bumpers…but most of these patterns would require the purchase (or search of) a book or pattern. I just don’t have the energy (or money in some cases). The list goes on and on.

With all of that searching I was exhausted. So I took a break and came back to it a week later, this morning. This is where I found the coolest thing since sliced bread.

Am@zon has a Key Word search and a Search Inside feature. Now this is a feature that I have perused in the past. But you know what - you can use it for knitting!! And with Am@zon’s preview feature you can look at a pattern picture to give you an idea of what it looks like, whether you want to purchase it. Go ahead, try it, here’s how to do it. I type in “Jaeger Matchmaker Merino” (I imagine the closer to get to the way the manufacturer refers to the yarn the better the results will be) and WHAM-O look at the fun! Go to one of the books and click on “See all pages with reference to…”

Now, this does not really get away from the whole spending money thing. But, it is a GREAT resource for all kinds of applications. The other bummer is that I am pretty sure these previews are only there with publisher initiation and permission (and possibly at some fee) thereby eliminating some of the smaller publishers. Furthermore, if the page that happens to have the phrase that you are seeking isn’t part of the preview, the book won’t come up as a possibility.
Finding the search inside/key work search reminded me of Google Book Search (here’s a link to the advanced search feature). This tool works for this application as well - the results are more different AND I’m pretty sure there is no limit to what you could find there as Google ramps up this service. So cool.
While neither of these tools replace your favorite independent bookstore or LYS, they are still pretty freaking cool. I am still without a pattern but I am definitely more inspired. The brown and orange will have to wait a bit more as I finish off some other projects.

Have any other free pattern sources? Ideas about finding patterns? Feel free to leave them in the comments. I love learning about new places.