Where to Find Free Vintage Knitting Patterns & Books

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Vintage knitting patterns and books are popular with many knitters for a variety of reasons. They are popular with those who love to wear vintage clothing who often make their own clothes or knitters that are interested in understanding how older patterns were written or even knitters who like to collect free knitting patterns. Whatever their reasons, there are plenty of places to find and collect vintage knitting patterns and knitting books.

Below, you’ll find a list of places to find digital copies (usually PDF copies or scanned and digitized pages) online and, if you prefer physical books, a list of places where you can find vintage knitting books. For physical copies, it’s best if you have a good idea of the titles or authors you’re interested in – it will make sifting through the books on the websites a little bit easier.

As far as how old vintage patterns are, most of the resources below in the Digital Vintage Knitting Patterns section have books and patterns up to the 1970s. But you’ll also find more modern 1980s to present day at Open Library and the list of recommended online book sellers.

Digital Vintage Knitting Patterns

If you’re just delving into the world of vintage knitting, online, digital copies of patterns and books are great starting point. Just reading these patterns is an adventure – they usually expect that the reader has a very good understanding of the knitting process and doesn’t need specific instructions for each step. And patterns are usually written in just a few sizes (often even just one size). Don’t expect them to look like modern knitting patterns that have lots of information, extra details, and plenty of sizes.

But they are definitely worth looking into – reading them (and knitting from them) is certainly an educational experience and will enrich your knitting knowledge. Below, you’ll find sources for digital vintage knitting patterns and books. Many of them have PDF patterns and books that you can download but some are scanned and then published directly on the website.

Antique Pattern Library

Antique Pattern Library is a project devoted to preserving craft-related patterns (that are in the public domain). You’ll find knitting listed under the categories (along with Bobbin Lace, Drawing, Tatting, and a many other crafts). The patterns have been scanned and digitized as PDFs that you can read and download. You can also donate to the website if you are so inclined.

Archive.org

The Internet Archive is a non-profit library that includes books, movies, software, and websites. There is so much here that it can be difficult to navigate and find what you’re looking for. Use the Collections to narrow down your options a little bit. The Knitting Reference Library collected by the University of Southampton is a good starting place. The books are scanned and digitized.

Open Library

Open Library is an open library catalog (and part of the Internet Archive project mentioned above). Books here aren’t as ‘vintage’ – you’ll find more recently published works in digitized form. Books are divided by subject but knitting isn’t specifically listed. Instead do a search for the term and find plenty of books that way. Books that are available can be ‘borrowed’ for a short time.

Project Gutenburg

Project Gutenburg is an online library for free e-books that are not protected under US copyright laws. While you won’t find any options for knitting on the Bookshelf page, just doing a search for the topic brings up books as well as subject categories for further research. It’s also a good idea to search for ‘needlework’ in general as most hand crafts (like knitting and embroidery) were published under that more general term. They also accept donations.

HathiTrust

HathiTrust was created as a collaborative effort between various academic and research libraries to digitize and preserve books on a variety of topics. There is a lot here, so use keywords like knitting, hand knitting, and needlework to make searching for vintage knitting books a little bit easier.

Vintage Knitting Pattern Archive

Vintage Knitting Pattern Archive divides their vintage knitting pattern collection by decade. You’ll find patterns from the 1930s to the 1970s. Other categories include free patterns, colorwork patterns, and a section for ‘make do and mend’. You can also search the patterns using specific categories and keywords (such as cables, raglan sleeves, beret, etc). While the scanned patterns are shared freely, the website owner does accept donations.

Vintage Knitters

Vintage Knitters provides digitized copies of vintage knitting patterns for a small fee (to cover website maintenance and hosting). The knitting patterns are divided into sections, making searching for specific garment types a bit easier. And, if you have any old knitting pattern booklets, the website owner accepts donations.

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Purchasing Vintage Knitting Pattern Books

If you prefer physical books to digitized copies of vintage knitting patterns and books, there are plenty of places to look for them. While you can certainly just spend time scrolling through each of the websites, you may want to have a few specific books or authors in mind to make searching a little bit easier.

Once you have a list of books or authors, check the websites below – all of them have used books sections. If you don’t have a specific author in mind, you can also search the categories for knitting related topics on each website and find some real gems.

Here’s a short list of recommendations:

Knitting from a Vintage Pattern

After looking through the resources here and finding some potential patterns, the next step is to find a suitable yarn. Most likely, the yarn used in the pattern will have been discontinued but you can search the internet to find the basic details about the type of yarn used. Once you know the weight and fiber content of the yarn, you can find a suitable substitute readily available yarn. For more information on this process, read this article: A Beginner’s Guide to Yarn Substitution.

You’ll want to knit a gauge swatch and read through the pattern to get a general idea of the construction and note any interesting details. You may have to work out the math if the pattern doesn’t include the size you’d like to knit. One tip – sometimes instructions can be confusing but I encourage you to just follow the instructions and knit. Even if you decide to rip it back and use a technique you’re more familiar with, it’s still a good way to learn something new or understand an aspect of vintage knitting that isn’t used today.

At the end of the day, it’s just yarn and needles and the yarn can easily be pulled out and used again. So give a vintage knitting pattern a try.

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