If you’re looking for some inspiration for your next knitting project, we’ve found a gem for you.
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The National Library of Australia (NLA) has made hundreds of free vintage knitting patterns available for keen knitters to have a go at making.
Where to find vintage knitting patterns
The library has been digitising old newspapers and magazines and adding them to its database Trove, including knitting patterns.
As the Trove website says: “It’s free and available online all day, every day.”
To find knitting patterns, head over to Trove and start searching through old magazines containing knitting patterns here.
If you’re after old books with knitting patterns, they have been digitised here.
Alternatively, some very handy helpers have created knitting pattern lists to make it easier for you to find what you’re looking for. For example, knitting patterns for men, women and children are already created, ready for you to browse here.
Vintage knits
The online knitting patterns have been so popular with NLA that they released a book earlier this year featuring 25 classic patterns from the 1930s, ’40s and ’50s
Publishing the patterns wasn’t easy, though.
Kathryn Favelle, director of community engagement at the NLA, told Christine Layton on ABC Radio Perth, “Often in the old patterns, only one size is provided in the newspaper or pattern book. We’re used to now getting pattern books that offer you four, five or six sizes to choose from.”
“The knitters that they were publishing for knew how to knit and adjust [sizes].
“Most of us don’t have that skill anymore, so Vintage Knits takes those old patterns and has adapted them for modern knitters and also gives us some tips and tricks for how we can make adjustments of our own.”
Similarly, The University of Southampton made its Knitting Reference Library available online and available to download for free. There are 300 knitting books published between 1849 and 2012. Find out more here.
You might also like:
How to choose the right knitting needles
How to choose the right yarn for your knitting
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