Patterns and textures are a bigger part of designing, and an increase number of resources are available on internet for free in this area. These are the best that I have found.
Wood Textures from Bittbox
Urban Dirty
Texture Kings
Stripe Generator
Squidfingers
Lost and Taken
Hi-Res Grungy Paper Textures
Grunge Textures
Free 3Ds Textures
COLOURlovers
CG Textures
BgPatterns
24 Hi-Res Textures from Bittbox