Useful Stuff for Knitters

This is a collection of posts that I’ve made over the years that knitters, and others may find useful. They don’t necessarily fit well into other categories but needed a one-stop place to find them. So if you are looking for knitting graph paper, a knitting calculator, knitting tips or techniques, you’ve come to the right place. And heck! You can even find code to add an auto generated link that connects to your Etsy shop! Great for ANY Etsy seller with a website or blog regardless of what you’re selling.

If you’re liking this page and find it useful, by all mean, please share it with others! I’d greatly appreciate the exposure and so will those who find it.

  • Free Knitting Pattern - Round Toe SlippersCurrent List of Member Patterns

    This is the current list of patterns available to download and print. Once you become a member, you can print ALL of the patterns listed below for ONE monthly fee. You can become a member of the website for as long or as short a time period as you like. See here for membership levels. Become a Member Knitting Patterns Crochet Patterns Watch how easy it is to use! Click the red play button ▶️ in the middle of the embedded video below. You can watch the how-to right here on the website. https://youtu.be/CaJ4YAFKO4o All the patterns below are available at every membership level. New patterns are added to this list continually. All titles below are also clickable links. Knitting Patterns How to Knit a Way Cool Monster Purse Knit a Simple Dishcloth How to Knit: Step-by-Step Beginners Video and Pattern to Knit Granny Slippers Snug Slip-On Slippers – Easy Slippers to Knit on Straight Needles Diamonds Dishcloth and Coasters Knitted Moccasin Bootie Slippers for Children – FREE Knitting Pattern Bulky Yarn Slippers on Straight Needles – FREE Knitting Pattern Easy to Knit Beginner Slipper Pattern – Knit Flat with Bulky Yarn on Straight Needles How to Knit Children’s Slippers – Free Knitting Pattern How to Knit Spider Fingerless Gloves – Knit Flat on Two Needles Chevron Striped Moccasin Slippers Cable Knit Slippers Minimalist Round Toe Slippers Easy to Knit Rolled Cuff Slippers Super Simple Easy to Knit Slippers Moccasin Style Slippers How to Knit Adult Slippers Easy to Knit Slippers Easy to Knit Long Cuffed Slippers How to Knit Adult Bootie Slippers  Adult Ribbed Booties Easy to Knit Bow Slippers Easy to Knit Owl Fingerless Gloves How to Knit Fingerless Gloves – with OWLS! How to Knit Fingerless Gloves Super Simple Fingerless Gloves Basic Long Fingerless Gloves Cable Fingerless Gloves or Mitts Fingerless Gloves or Arm Warmers with BOWS! One Piece Knitted Dishcloth and Coasters Easy to Knit Textured Scarf, Dishcloth and Coasters Bars and Stripes Knitted Dishcloth Cute AF Bows Dishcloth Pattern The Beginner Knitter – Learn to Knit a Dishcloth Vertical Striped Beanie Toque Crochet Patterns Crocheted Sun Hat and Bucket Hat Quick to Make Bracelet Flower and Friendship Bracelet Glad to see you here and considering becoming a member to support my work. I’m currently adding my patterns to this list, starting with my most popular. Please be patient. It will all be here soon, ??I also am writing new stuff all the time so be sure to check back often. The pattern sections listed in the exclusive member areas don’t have ads, and you can easily download and print everything with a single click. To gain access to these areas, you’ll need to become a member for only $3 USD per month. Click here to see how easy to use the member areas. Click to see how easy!! You still have access to all previously purchased patterns, and can still buy individual patterns to print if a subscription isn’t something you’re interested in. I have a number of printable pattern purchase options including this website, my Etsy Shop, Ravelry, LoveCrafts and both digital and paperback versions on Amazon. Of course, you can read the ad supported versions on the website for free. There will always be a free version of this site for anyone who wants it. I believe in making my work as accessible as possible while still being able to pay my mortgage and feed my family each month ? You can use the buttons below to read ALL my patterns online at no cost to you. FREE Knitting Patterns FREE Crochet Patterns Member patterns are available in English only. Only the ad supported, online versions of my patterns are translated into other languages.

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  • Free colorwork knitting paper for intarsia knitting designFREE Knitting Graph Paper – Knitting Colorwork Paper – Printable PDF

    Get your free knitting colorwork paper here! Perfect for all your intarsia motif design needs. No need to sign in, sign up or give away any personal information. Simply use the download button to download and print as many copies of the knitting graph paper as you like. It’s a PDF file meaning that you can easily open it on any device be it your computer, phone or tablet. View the paper onlineDownload If you think someone else could use this free knitting color work paper, please let them know and share it on social media. The knitting graph paper is to create patterns in the stockinette stitch. You can use it to either make stitch patterns, or use colours to create more intricate designs known as intarsia knitting. It’s fairly large so it will meet most of the requirements for your pattern. You can always tape sheets together if you need something larger. I’ve also included arrows along the side to show which way you will be knitting based on the shape of the stitch. I also include a very faint pink colour so you can easily determine the number of stitches. I’ve marked them off in 5 stitch and row sections. To help explain the process of designing your own intarsia motifs, there are photos and explanations on how to use the colorwork knitting paper included with the PDF you can download and print for free.

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  • Knitter frustrated with how to increase stitchesKnitting Calculator – How to Increase Evenly Across the Row

    It’s tough, and frustrating, to do the math to figure out how many stitches you need to knit to make your stitches even across the row. We’ve all been there and we all hate doing the math. Well, you’re in luck! I’ll do it for you ?. And if you don’t know how to M1 (make 1 or increase) scroll down the page or click this link to watch the video. Using the calculator below will give you evenly spaced increases across the length of your work. All you need to enter is the number of stitches you have on your needle and the number of stitches you need to increase. Everything is calculated for you with a single click! Enter the number of stitches you have: Enter the number of stitches you need to INCREASE: Calculate Click here if you need to calculate how many stitches to DECREASE across a row I know that sometimes the stitches are a little off on the ends. Adjust accordingly if it bothers you. I really was focused on the making the increases centered in the work with even spacing between the stitches. I want to be completely transparent in where this knitting calculator and the decreasing calculator originated. I did not write the code myself. After much tweaking of this query to ChatGPT, I’ve developed a stitch calculator to determine how to increase evenly across your work. I knew what I wanted, I just didn’t know how to write the code to make it happen. AI is useful after all! My notes I entered into ChatGPT to get the code to work. https://youtu.be/Pi8rq98zuOQ

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  • Members Only Demo – Easy Downloads and Printing

    Use this sample page to see how easy it is to read, download and print the patterns in the paid member areas.

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  • Etsy Mini Widget DemoHow to Display Etsy Items on Your Website

    I’m not sure if you’ve seen this before, but this is a widget that Etsy offered its users years ago. It gives clickable thumbnails directly linking to your Etsy shop and automatically updates as you upload and sell items. It’s a handy little widget to add to your blog or website. Go ahead and give it a click ? It’ll take you from this site but you can use your browser’s BACK button to return. I originally added it to my blog on blogspot and just kept it there. I recopied it onto my blog posts ever since. Today I realized I need to share it. To do this you will need to have some very basic coding skills. Literally adding a html block and pasting the code in it if you’re running a Wordpress site like this one. There will be something similar on all web building sites I imagine. There’s a bunch of tutorials that can help you do this for whatever you’re using. And for the record, I am not affiliated or endorsed by Etsy to do this. This is their code originally and for some reason, they got rid of it years ago. As long as they’re cool with this post, I’ll leave this info up. If I’m told to delete, it I will. But back to this widget; I can’t tell you how awesome this little piece of wonder is. It automatically updates as you sell items (though this can take a while), plus you can have it show the 4 most important items in your shop. Those are the items you have featured in your listings section. See this link on Etsy to find out how to do that – Featuring Items. Those items are then followed by your most recent listings. You don’t have to feature items for this to work. It will automatically pull the first items you have in your shop otherwise. Below is my automatic Etsy Mini with the settings set at 5 columns and 1 row showing. The first 4 items are those featured in my shop (marked with a star when on my listing on Etsy), with the last item being my latest listing. It’s always changing based on what is selling and what I’m listing. Go ahead and give it a click ? It’ll take you from this site but you can use your browser’s BACK button to return. Setting Up Your Etsy Mini Copy and paste this code where you want it to appear on your website or blog post. <script src=”https://www.etsy.com/assets/js/etsy_mini_shop.js” type=”text/javascript”></script><script type=”text/javascript”>new Etsy.Mini(*******,’thumbnail’,3,1,1,’https://www.etsy.com’);</script> The ******* is your Etsy ID number. Finding this is actually really easy. It’s a part of every photo that you upload to your listings. I use a Mac so the process may differ slightly with a PC. Go to any of your photos in any of your listings.Right click and select “open image in a new tab” or “open image in a new window”. It’ll be something like that. Do what you need to do to open an image on your web browser. This is NOT the same steps as saving a photo. That won’t work.Go to the address bar at the top of the pageYour Etsy ID number is what is shown in red. (It is white in the address bar but I made it a different colour so you can easily see where it is). I looked at a number of different photos and tried out their numbers. All I saw was 7 digits and they all worked. It may be more or less for you. How the code will look with the Etsy Id number replaced: <script src=”https://www.etsy.com/assets/js/etsy_mini_shop.js” type=”text/javascript”></script><script type=”text/javascript”>new Etsy.Mini(1234567,’thumbnail’,3,6,1,’https://www.etsy.com’);</script> Please share this post with these handy links ???????? Changing the Display Once you replace all of the ******* with your Etsy ID number, you can play with what you would like to display. The numbers after the word ‘thumbnail’ adjust what is displayed. The first number is the columns. The second number is the rows. I honestly don’t know what the 3rd number does. I always leave it alone. Let me know in the comments if you figure it out. For example, the Etsy Mini below is set at 3 column and 6 rows. The code for the display above (without an id number): <script src=”https://www.etsy.com/assets/js/etsy_mini_shop.js” type=”text/javascript”></script><script type=”text/javascript”>new Etsy.Mini(*******,’thumbnail’,3,6,1,’https://www.etsy.com’);</script> The maximum number of items the code displays is 25. So the number of rows and columns you choose have to equal or be less than that amount. Center Your Etsy Mini If you want to center your display like the one below, you can easily add the <p align=”center”> </p> tags around the code like this. <p align=”center”> <script src=”https://www.etsy.com/assets/js/etsy_mini_shop.js” type=”text/javascript”></script><script type=”text/javascript”>new Etsy.Mini(*******,’thumbnail’,3,6,1,’https://www.etsy.com’);</script> </p> There you go. I’m not a coder by any stretch and tried to explain this the best way I could. I hope you get a lot of use out of this. I’ll try to help and answer your questions as I have time. I work full time and run my own Etsy shop. I can only do so much. My comments sometimes work and sometimes don’t. I’ve been having issues with it. Please log in to add comments or help answer anyone that may be having troubles. Good luck! Sell a bunch ?

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  • Knitter struggling with how to decrease stitchesKnitting Calculator – Decrease Stitches Evenly Across the Row

    The term, “decrease evenly across ? number of stitches” in any pattern can be an unpleasant sight to any knitter (me included). Whereas I try to do this calculation in the patterns I write, some don’t. Regardless, the stitch calculator below will help! Using this calculator will give you evenly spaced decreases over the length of your work. All you need to enter is the number of stitches you have on your needle and the number of stitches you need to decrease. Everything is calculated for you. Enter the number of stitches you have: Enter the number of stitches you need to DECREASE: Calculate Click here if you need to calculate how many stitches to INCREASE across a row Please note: If you have more or less stitches at the end of your work, go ahead and knit them. The number of decreases across the stitches is correct. I want to be completely transparent in where this increase and decrease knitting calculators originated. I did not write the code myself. After much tweaking of this query to ChatGPT, I’ve developed a stitch calculator to determine how to decrease evenly across your work. I knew what I wanted, I just didn’t know how to write the code to make it happen. AI is useful after all!

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  • Pearl Clutching Karen.YOuR PaTtERnS ArEn’t FreE – I dON’t LIkE tHE AdS and Other Shameful Interactions

    There’s an ongoing issue that I want to address. I get emails (social media comments and reviews) similar to the ones I included below, on a weekly basis. I think it’s time I let everyone know how hurtful and demoralizing it is to receive these messages. A direct email I received. This was posted publicly by this person on my YouTube video. They knew it would be public. That’s why their username is visible. (Additional comments, emails and reviews are added to the bottom of this page under the heading: Wall of Shame. If this has popped up at the top of my new posts on the homepage, I’ve had yet another negative interaction.) Click here to skip to the Wall of Shame For years, I have been designing and writing knitting (and a few crochet) patterns and publishing them through various distributors. One of these has been my website. It’s gone though many iterations over the course of my career but my patterns have ALWAYS been free to read online. I make my designs accessible to EVERYONE. They are the complete patterns with links to how-to videos, photos and more. I do this so anyone can access my work. No strings attached. No login required.  Yes, they are ad supported. I also advertise what I make through other marketplaces like Amazon, Etsy, etc. It’s how I can make a living from doing this without charging users directly. I see it as a win-win for everyone. But here is where the problem lies. It’s the printing of my patterns… I had to disable printing on my website because people would print off everything on my site, without so much as a thank you. My work that I had literally spent weeks designing and more weeks into formatting and publishing. Yes. It does take that long.  To offset the loss of ad revenue from the “print users” not being on or returning to the website, I charge a small fee ($3 USD) to print my patterns. I chose this price keeping in mind that a standard ball of acrylic yarn available at a big box store is a little less than $4. This is the yarn users need to make my patterns. I didn’t think it was too much to ask for my work. Apparently, to some, it is. And somehow translates into accusations like those in the attached email and YouTube comment. Messages that illicit some strong emotions in me. But I digress.  Tbh, these comments are completely inaccurate. Printing of the patterns isn’t necessary. You can pull up my website on your phone or tablet and scroll along with the pattern as you knit. Wanting a paper copy is a preference, not a requirement to read the pattern.  The impetus of making this post is how I continually feel like I need to defend the choices I make in how I disseminate my patterns. I’m tired of defending my right to be financially compensated for my work. I shouldn’t be berated over a $3 purchase or membership subscription fee because someone doesn’t want to scroll down a webpage to read the pattern. Or even worse, being accused of lying that the patterns aren’t free. If you can read it in its entirety, how is that not free? In short…Please stop sending me messages like this.  For the sake of my mental health, I will selectively acknowledge or respond to the selfish, entitled haters. If you don’t like it, don’t use my work. It’s the simplest solution to the “problem”. If you’re reading this, I probably sent you the link in response to your very unnecessary message. Keep that in mind when you feel the need to “reach out” to creators on the internet. We’re real people. What you said was hurtful. And untrue. But if you stumble upon this inadvertently and are a supporter of my work, thank you soooo much! To those who have purchased my patterns and given me great reviews; you are why I keep going and I truly thank you!!  TL;DR – Stop bitching about my patterns not being free or about the ads. You CAN read them for free on my website. I’m allowed to profit from my work.  Wall of Shame I’m done with the comments. If you feel like complaining about the website, it WILL end up here. Also, if you are going to leave one-sided reviews without giving the true context of what was said in the messages, those are also going to end up here. Happy reading everyone! Don’t be like these people. Odd Way to Say Thank You This next, and long interaction, took place while i was on vacation. She didn’t know how to download her patterns off Etsy. I took the time to help her and was given a one star review and insults for my efforts. I’ve redacted her last name and email as she doesn’t include it in her public profile. There is no reason to ever speak to someone like this in any situation. Of Course It’s My Fault

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  • seven slipper styles to knit - a knitting pattern collectionSeven Slipper Styles to Knit – A Knitting Pattern Collection

    I don’t usually do posts like this but I thought I’d make it easier for everyone to get this knitting pattern collection. There is both a physical book you can get, a downloadable PDF that you can print and of course, all the individual patterns are free to read on this website if purchasing isn’t an option for you. And something that I’m certainly stoked about, the big box retailers are now offering the paperback versions of my work though their websites. SCORE! This is for my American followers only though. Sorry to everyone else. Keep reading for more purchasing options. Target Walmart Click a button above to purchase NOW! We’ll start with the links to the FREE, ad supported patterns. Clicking on the title will take you to the pattern page. I’ve listed the slipper patterns included in the publication below: Adult Moccasin Slippers Knitted Plaid Slippers Ribbed Bootie Slippers Owl Slippers Cable Knit Slippers Super Cozy Texture Bootie Slippers Super Simple Easy to Knit Slippers Seven Slipper Styles to Knit – Paperback Version If you would like to purchase the paperback version of the slipper pattern collection, it’s available on Amazon only. It is very reasonably priced at $12.99 USD and shipping is included if you’re a prime member. The price is automatically converted into your county’s currency equivalent. Be sure that you order it from YOUR COUNTRY. If not you’ll be charged shipping. I’ve included the links from each country. Unfortunately, the paperback version isn’t available in very county. USA Canada United Kingdom If the patten collection isn’t available in your country or you would prefer a less expensive option and print it yourself, you can purchase the PDF Version from two places. Ravelry and LoveCrafts don’t allow for collections like this. Etsy – Seven Slipper Styles to Knit This website – Seven Slipper Styles to Knit – A Knitting Pattern Collection A quick note on other places that you can get this collection from. Amazon does offer the Kindle version of the slipper pattern collection in all countries. I don’t think you can print the pattern off on a Kindle. That defeats the purpose of creating this post that helps you find where you can get a physical copy of the slipper patterns. Eight Slipper Styles to Knit And in case you were unaware, I did another collection of my slipper patterns years ago. I never made it into a paperback (though if anyone was interested, please let me know). You can purchase the printable PDF from the following places: Etsy – Eight Slipper Styles to Knit This Website – Eight Slipper Styles to Knit

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  • How to work in ends while knittingHow to Work in the Ends While Knitting

    This simple technique is something that I’ve been meaning to share for quite sometime. And since I’ve received a number of comments regarding the number of ends for my Owl Slippers and Moccasin Slippers, I realized I needed to get on this ASAP. I finally made the video! It shows how to work in the cast on end, work in the yarn at the start of the row if making stripes and how to join a new ball in the middle of a row and leave NO hole. I left the photo tutorial further down this page if you prefer that way of learning. https://youtu.be/1_zF6HAzsfY And I still don’t have instructions for left handed people. I’m so sorry about that. I’m right handed so it’s what I have to work with. Step 1: With the right side of your work facing you, put your needle through the stitch as if you were to knit. With the end at the back of your work, lay the end over your working needle. With your left hand, hold the end snug, not tight. Step 2: Place the working yarn over the needle as you normally would and knit the stitch. Do NOT catch or pull the end through while knitting the stitch. Drop the stitch from the non-working needle as you normally would. Step 3: Drop the end (or hold out of the way) and knit the next stitch. Repeat steps 1-3 for roughly 10 stitches. With this technique you are alternating in order to catch the end between the stitches at the back of your work as shown below. What it looks like from the wrong side. View from the front. Can’t see the end at all! When you are done, pull the end so it is snug. It’ll take up any slack that’s between the stitches you skipped. Before I trim it off, I always stretch the final piece to make sure there is just enough slack to ensure there’s no puckering. If you need a little more security, you can always give an additional back weave with a tapestry needle to catch the end of the end a bit, but I don’t. And yes, this does keep the yarn in place even with 100% acrylic yarn. I’ve made a number of slippers with the ends worked in this way and an afghan. I’ve washed the afghan a number of times with no issue whatsoever. I hope this helps speed up your work. I hate sewing in ends just as much as the next person and anything that lessens the number of them is worth a huge ?? in my books. And I also haven’t had much success doing this with purl stitches. If you have any ideas, by all means, let us know in the comment section. The K1 P1 ribbing that I do for the cuffs of my Owl Fingerless Gloves works well using this method, too. Catch the end on your knit stitch and purl the purl stitch as you normally would. Because it is right on the cuff and needs to stretch and contract, I do catch the end a bit with a tapestry needle just to give it a little extra security. Free Knitting Patterns

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