One of life’s little pleasures for me is to devour stitch library/encyclopedia’s.

I can spend hours happily leafing through printed books like Norah Gaughan’s Knitted Cable Sourcebook, Mary Jane Mucklestone’s 200 Fair Isle Designs, The Harmony Guides to Knitting Stitches series and The Vogue knitting Stitchionary series.

In short, I am a sucker for a good book of stitch patterns.

Increasingly I find my attention has also been turning to online sources – and it seems the internet is swarming with sites that knitters can explore in their quest in finding the exact stitch pattern they would like to use in the next knitting project.

One thing I do like about online sources is that it has enabled knitters to look at and experience new cultural ways of knitting. For example: I am captivated by what is coming out of Eastern European countries and am absolutely gobsmacked by the intricate details in Japanese lace stitches.

Given the sheer number of stitch patterns it would seem sensible to ask why I include a stitch library on my website?

The simple answer to that is I am a knitwear designer and as such I am always thinking how a certain stitch pattern would look on a garment.

The truth is I enjoy swatching stitch patterns, tweaking existing ones and seeking to create new ones. Even if I wasn’t a designer, I would still be swatching away quite happily.

For me, it is part and parcel of the creative process.

In the last few months I have shared quite a few swatches on knitting groups I belong to on Facebook and the feedback I have had is nothing short of amazing.

So many knitters making comments and wanting the patterns. It has been both humbling and gratifying to hear knitters say they have used stitches out of my library in their projects.

This is why I am happy to share stitch patterns that resonate with me. It is my way of giving back to the knitting community. It is also about making new friends, local and international, through a shared interest in knitting.

One of my aims this year is to grow my stitch library. Sometime in the future I will probably publish one or two stitch library books but the online library will always be available for knitters to click onto.

So far, the library has three categories: lace, cables and original designs. This year I would like to add other categories and am particularly interested in heritage stitches and stitches that are not well known.

The library is yours to use and to share with your friends and family.

I would welcome feedback to what you would like to see on it.