Where to Share Your Free Knitting And Crochet Patterns

When I started to design knitting patterns, I wasn't interested in hit rates and traffic to my blog. Over the years I have wanted to increase my traffic. There are a lot of general posts around that give really good advice on how and where to share your posts - these deal with Search Engine Optimization (SEO), commenting on other peoples' blogs, shareable photos, best times to share your posts on social media etc.

I have followed some of this advice in the past and it has helped a lot to drive more readers to my blog (especially SEO is important - since it will make search engines find your content). However, as a knitting blogger, I would also have liked to get more specific links, i.e. a compilation sites that useful for knitting (and crochet) bloggers to promote their content.

Since I haven't found any such list yet, this post specifically lists sites, directories, social media groups etc. for knitting and crochet patterns. It may be useful both for designers that are trying to get more traffc to their blogs as well as crafters trying to find free resources.

So, which sites do you use? Do you have any other recommendations to share or find free patterns? Let me know in the comments.

Pattern Directories and Pattern Sharing Sites

• allfreeknitting.com / allfreecrochet.com: Huge directory of knitting and crochet patterns where you can submit your patterns using a standard web form. You need to create an account to submit your projects - but they might link to your pattern in one of their newsletters which usually provides a spike in my webside traffic.
• craftgawker.com: A curated photo gallery to showcase the works of craft bloggers. You have to create an account and use a web form to submit your work. They also review the submissions in order to make sure that the photos match their standards.
• shareapattern.com: Links to a new free knitting, crochet and sewing pattern each day. You have to register to submit a pattern.
• knittinghelp.com: A site with videos to help knitters learn new techniques that also lists free patterns by category. You can submit a pattern using this web form.
• CraftGossip.com: According to their about page "CraftGossip covers news written by craft people telling you about all the good stuff". To submit your pattern for being linked to, you have to fill in a form. 
• 365crochet.com - crochet patterns only - there is a web form to submit a free pattern to be listed
• knittingpatternsgalore.com / crochetpatternsgalore.com 
• craftroulette.com

Social Media for Knitters and Crocheters

Ravelry

Ravelry is THE site to share and find knitting and crochet patterns - both free and paid. You have to create an account to search their huge pattern directory, but it is well worth it. The search function is excellent. As a designer you can showcase your pattern there - and you also have the fun of seeing other people's projects from your patterns. Over the years Ravelry has provided more than 20% of the traffic to my blog.

Facebook Groups

On Facebook there are a lot of groups for knitters and crocheters - on some of them you can also share your free patterns. Just search for "knitting" or "crochet" and apply for membership.
Groups that are specifically made to post free patterns are  for example (links only work if your are logged in to Facebooks) Ravelry Free Pattern Alerts, Ravelry Free Pattern Alerts (Knit Only), Free Crochet and Knitting Patterns. Other great knitting and crochet groups are Knitting, Love Knitting and Crocheting, CROCHET ADDICT and (if you can read German) nadelspiel ... Whichever group you post your patterns to, make sure to read the group's rules and comply to them and don't spam!

Google+ Groups

On Google+ there are al so a lot of groups for knitters and crocheters - many of them also allow to post links to your free patterns (but as always, read the group rules and comply to them - and don't spam). Just search for knitting/crochet groups and ask to be admitted. Groups that I post my patterns to include: Knitting, Knitting Bloggers, Knit Along on Google+, Knitters Support Group and Some Crochet Too, The Crochet Lounge, Free Crochet Patterns, The Crochet Café and many more ...

Pinterest and Pinterest Group Boards

Pinterest calls itself as "the world’s catalogue of ideas". You can certainly find a lot of inspiration there - not only in the yarny arts but also in recipes, home decor, life hacks etc.
Pinterest is great to store good ideas (by pinning them to your boards), but also to promote your own projects and blog posts, You can do this by pinning to your own boards and using appropriated hash tags. You can encorage others to pin your posts by using Pinterest friendly photos and adding a Pin-It-Button using Pinterest's widget builder.

Group Boards: If you want to find a suitable group board, go to PinGroupie.com, browse the groups and ask to be added as a contributor as indicated (this process may be different for different boards).
If you have created a group board yourself, you can list it at a Group Board Directory.

Group Boards that I post to are: Let's Knit and Crochet, Knitting Knitting Knitting PIN for ALL, Fiber Arts Community Board {P2P}, Yarn Love Community Pinboard, my knit affair ¦ pin here, The WHOot Best Crochet and Knitting, etc. (And no, I'm not the owner of any of these boards so I cannot add you to the list of contributors - you have to ask the owner's permission (politely!) - and it's their decision to accept you or not.) Also, all of these boards have a set of rules to comply to.

Yarny and Crafty Link Parties

If you are featured at a link party, it might create a spike in your blog's hit rate - especially if it's a popular link party and the hosts share the features on their social media channels. Here's a list of link parties that specialise in "yarny" stuff:

• Fiber Tuesdays by Oui Crochet and The Quilting Room with Mel (Tuesday - every week)
• Hookin on Hump Day by MooglyBlog and Petals to Picots (Wednesday - every other week)
• Link and Share Wednesday by OombawkaDesign (Wednesday - every week)
• Link Your Stuff by meertje (Wednesday - every week)
• Yarnalong by Small Things (Wednesday - every week)
• Crafting along by mazkow.com (Saturday - every week)
• Link Your Stuff by annemaries haakblog (Saturday - every week)
• KnittingLove Link Party by the Underground Crafter and Jessie at Home (monthly)

More link parties (not yarn specific) that I regularly frequent can be found here.
Other peoples (crafty) link party lists are for example here and here. One general link party directory can be found here.

Forums etc.

• Knitting Paradise is a forum for knitters to share free resources (especially the Links and Resources Board), to show off their projects to ask for advice and to generally chat about knitting. You have to create an account to post there and you have to be a "regular" to post your own patterns. The boards have rules - read them before posting!
• CrochetVille Community
• Crochet.Community

So, these are my favorite places to promote my patterns. I hope this list was helpful to you and I would love to add more recommendations to my list.

Rettangolini Scarf

Crochet yourself a fun summer accessory with this breezy scarf. It's constructed of rectangular modules that are connected as you go.

This scarf is the crochet version of my (knitted) Little Rectangles Summer Scarf.

This work by Knitting and so on is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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Abbreviations and Special Techniques:

• DC = double crochet (US terminology) - as shown in this YouTube video by HappyBerry Crochet 
• Chainless Double Crochet Foundation Stitch (CDCF): A way of starting with double crochet stitches without doing chain stitches first. It is shown in this YouTube video by Gleeful Things.  
• Connected Chainless Double Crochet Foundation Stitch (cCDCF): Yarn over and insert your hook into the bottom of the last CDCF (see picture 1 below), yarn over and pull the yarn through once (see picture 2), then insert the hook of the edge of the next rectangle of the layer below (see picture 3), yarn over and pull through two loops (the one picked up from the next rectangle and the next on your hook (see picture 4), then finish like a normal DC.

How to do a Connected Chainless Double Crochet Foundation Stitch (click on image to enlarge)

Materials
Since gauge doesn't matter here, you can basically use any yarn weight to crochet this scarf. I used the following

• about 120 grams of fingering weight yarn
• a 3.5 mm crochet hook
• a tapestry needle to weave in ends

Construction

This scarf is constructed in layers of DC rectangles (12 DCs wide and 4 rows high). Each layer consists of 5 rectangles one on top of the last one but with an offset of 8 stitches. The layers are at right angles to the layer below - at bit like entrelac, but with spaces inbetween.
The first rectangle of one layer connects with the fifth or last rectangle of the layer below, the second with the fourth rectangle, the third with the third of the row below, the fourth with the second and the fifth with the first from the row below. This construction is shown in the picture below.

If you like your patterns charted, here's a chart of the whole pattern. If you rather like written instructions see below.

Chart (click on image to enlarge)

Instructions

First Layer

First rectangle
Row 1: ch 4, do a double crochet into the first chain, do 10 CDFCs, turn
Row 2: ch3, do 11 DCs (one into each double crochet in the row below), turn
Row 3 = Row 2
Row 4 = Row 2

Second to fifth rectangle
Row 1: starting with the 2nd DC in the row below, do 8 slip stitches, chain 3, do 3 DCs into the remaining DCs of the row below, do 8 CDFCs, turn
Row 2: ch3, do 11 DC (one into each double crochet in the row below), turn
Row 3 = Row 2
Row 4 = Row 2

Second Layer (and all subsequent layers)

First rectangle
Row 0: ch 7 (see illustration A1)
Row 1: ch 3, do 7 DCs (one into each ch of row 0). do 4 DCs into the side of rectangle 5 of the layer below, turn  (see illustration A2)
Row 2: ch3, do 11 DCs (one into each double crochet in the row below), turn
Row 3 = Row 2
Row 4 = Row 2 (see illustration A3)

First rectangle of layers 2 and following (click on image to enlarge)

Second to fifth rectangle
Row 1: starting with the 2nd DC in the row below, do 8 slip stitches, chain 3, do 3 DCs into the remaining DCs of the row below (see illustration B1), do 3 CDFCs, 1cCDFC (connecting it to the corner of the next rectangle in the layer below, see illustration B2), do 4 DCs into the side of this rectangle (see illustration B3), turn
Row 2: ch3, do 11 DCs (one into each double crochet in the row below),
Row 3 = Row 2
Row 4 = Row 2

Second to fifth rectangle of layers 2 and following (click on image to enlarge)

Repeat this layer until the scarf is as long as you want it to be.

Weave in ends and block gently.

This post was featured at Fiber Tuesday Link Party #77 at OuiCrochet. Thank you!