I've found a great website:
It has thousands of books that can be downloaded free, in all sorts of formats. They ask for a contribition, and I gave them one, because they deserve it. Most of the books are pre-1930s, and thus out of copyright, but there are a few more recent ones whose authors have made them available. I downloaded about 30 books, some very long ones, such as Boswell's Life of Johnson, to put (a few at a time) on my Palm Lifedrive, which has a 4 gigabyte hard drive.
One of the books I found was the Ladies Workbook of Knitting, Crochet and Lacepoint. It intrigued me, but the free copy didn't have any of the diagrams. However, I googled the book and found a copy (not free, though) at
So I bit the bullet and bought it, for about 8 euros, I think. (4.50 pounds sterling.) Tradebit is another site that looks interesting. It is a hosting service for selling anything downloadable. At first glance, I would say it's a bit disorganized, but it might be a good place to sell patterns. Unfortunately, they seem to go in a category called recipes/manuals, which is 33 pages long, without subdivisions, and 95% recipes.
Speaking of Palm computers, I think that in the future when I'm working on a pattern, I'll scan it and put it on my palm computer. It should be easier than carrying around the printed instructions.
Right now, I've been too busy with my consulting work to do any crocheting. I haven't touched it for several months now.