I am not sure if anyone else knows about these sites but they are just chalk full of great completely free knitting and crochet patterns. There are no advertisements to sift through either. I love it because I can just print out the individual patterns and keep them in a 3 ring binder for easy reference.

 http://www.knittingpatterncentral.com/

 http://www.crochetpatterncentral.com/

Just click on the pattern directory link and you will have hundreds of patterns to choose from.

Those are cool!  Bernat.com has some good free patterns - but I have to watch that I don't start buying yarn.  Luckily, I've never been fond of buying yarn over the 'net; I'm never sure just what color it is going to be, and that stops me. 

I love knittingpatterncentral.  Also try Knitty magazine, a free online magazine and knittychick.com.

I agree with all of those sites. On knitting pattern central.com if you see a little plus in front of the item listed it will take you to the Lion Brand web site, in which you have to be a member before being able to access their patterns. Another good thing about these sites if the many links that lead you to other sites, and from those sites many more. You could spend hours looking around. It is a fun thing to do. Edey

Thanks for the tips ladies. I am going to check out the new websites today. My favorite online venue for yarn is www.elann.com they are a canadian company and the prices are reallly resonable. I have purchased yarn via the net from them and knit picks and the yarn in my opinion is superior to knit picks. I ended up donating most of what I got from the latter. Unfortunatly for me I live in Seattle and EVERYTHING is expensive, especially all the hoity toity yarn shops around here. I can barely afford to walk in the door. My husband and I have decided to have one more child so I am getting anxious to start kntting booties, sweaters and blankets.