Whether you stitch a simple border pattern around an existing piece of work or stitch mythological Irish creatures such as dragons and leprechauns, the finished article will be unique to you and admired by all.

There are hundreds of websites that offer free cross stitch patterns and a fair few that are dedicated to the art of the Celts. Only a small number, however, offer free Irish patterns and after an in-depth search of the top cross stitch websites I have chosen those I think are the top 5 sites where you should be looking for free Irish cross stitch patterns:

1.  www.celticxstitch.ie/     First up is this is a brilliant site for anyone wishing to stitch names, logos or even alphabets in a traditional Celtic style. You simply type in the word or phrase of interest to you and a perfect cross stitch pattern appears on the screen. You then simply download it and print it out -- easy as that.

Alternatively you can save the image and incorporate it into any popular graphics editor (such as PhotoShop or Paint Shop Pro for example) thereby enabling you to use it as part of a larger pattern. If you wish, you can create the entire alphabet so that it is always there to use. The webpage even gives instructions regarding how to print out wide images for if your chosen phrase is quite long.

2.  www.aon-celtic.com/free/cfreewarexstitch.html     this small but beautiful has no less than 8 free Irish cross stitch patterns. These include 4 border designs that range from basic enough for a newbie to complete up to an intricate triangle knot border that looks unbelievable when stitched by a professional.

There is also a very pretty Claddagh ring design, which can easily be stitched either into an existing design or can be used as a stand-alone design, for example, on a loved ones handkerchiefs or their towels.

This and the other 7 patterns will keep you stitching for months (unless you're a cross stitch addict and then its more like weeks) and as they can be downloaded as PDF files they can be kept for use over and over again.

3.  www.past-impressions.co.uk/freecharts.htm     Although this site only offers one free Irish cross stitch pattern it is probably the most beautiful and intricate free pattern I saw on any of the sites. It is a gorgeous traditional Celtic cross complete with a border.

It is available for download as a PDF and in addition to the actual pattern the PDF gives general instructions, a DMC color chart and illustrations and instructions that explain how to create some of the more advanced stitches, thus making the pattern accessible to stitchers of all levels.

4.  www.angelfire.com/mi/rex/celtic.html     this is one for the more adventurous stitchers amongst us. Here there are 22 Celtic tarot card patterns just itching to be stitched. Each is different but then you have to stitch 22 extra designs all with the same pattern for the backs of the cards, the instructions for which are on the page 'Basic Instruction'.

With each tarot card pattern you have a DMC color key so the finished articles are authentic and matching. However, if you prefer to use other colors to suit your personality, then that is easily done too. Stitching the whole set would be a mammoth task but just think how unique your set of tarot cards would be and how incredibly special they would be when given as a gift.

5.  www.picturecraftwork.com     this is not technically a site with free Irish designs. However, if you have an Irish picture that you love you can upload it to the website and create a cross stitch chart from it; anything less than 1000 stitches is free (and anything over 1000 is only $5). This novel idea will allow you to cross stitch any Irish design you like, providing you have a picture of course, and it is incredibly easy to do.

No doubt there are a number of you that know of other sites which offer free Irish designs (why not write in and tell us about them) but I wanted to choose sites that had something for all levels of stitchers. This way, even the newbies amongst us can join in too.