What's Hot? What's Not? Knitwear Trends

In this episode, Sarah and Marie discuss the latest knitting trends. Which trends are heading out, which ones are here to stay? Find out in this week's episode!

Learn more about Sarah here: www.knotanotherhat.com

Learn more about Marie here: www.oliveknits.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome to We Tried to Tell You, a podcast full of unsolicited opinions about life, fiber, and everything in between. I'm Marie Green. And I am Sarah Keller. And I wanted to have a fun little talk today about trends. What trends are we seeing in our industry? What trends are we sad to see go? What trends are we ready to kick out the door?

SPEAKER_00 0:30

Oh, I'm I'm ready for this one. I have opinions. I have unsolicited opinions. You have opinions?

unknown 0:38

Never.

SPEAKER_00 0:40

Oh my gosh. Well, what where should we start, Sarah? This is a good one. Um, oh gosh, this is a good one.

SPEAKER_01 0:47

Here it's my topic, and where should we start? Okay, I have to say I really love a trend right now in sweater shapes to a little bit more boxy drop shoulder. Um, really love that fit for myself, and I'm glad to see that it's a it's a trend. When I first opened the store in the um the mid-aughts 2005, I'd say for the first 10 years, trends were definitely towards a lot of uh body shaping. So um waist shaping, tailored, fed in sleeves, absolutely, and uh that didn't really look good on me um and my body shape for a lot of um projects, and I got better at at customizing that, but it still doesn't do me any favors. I'm short waisted as we've talked about. My hips are a larger measurement than they than you would think based on my shoulders and my bust. You know, so everything had to be combo-sized, and it was really hard. Not to mention, it's also really difficult to create. It's a lot harder to sew in a set-in sleeve. Um you gotta, if you're doing waist shaping and bust arts, you gotta make sure that those match up to where your actual waist is and where your actual bust is. So um, it's less complicated when they're boxing.

SPEAKER_00 2:06

I agree with you that the style and the fit is just really great for some of us. In spite of being tall, I am very short waisted. So I'm mostly leg, and that drop shoulder fit is really great for me. I am not one to shy away from a complicated construction or design style. Like I love to dig into that, but for what I actually wear, it goes. Yes, love them. Same, same, so good. Yeah. I'm curious if because you're in the store with the people in person more, I'm seeing in my audience online. So sometimes I'm not sure if I see the shift in trends as much because I'm not stocking a shelf. I'm mostly knitting things in the yarns I like and then vaguely capturing the gist of what people are doing. But I feel like the trend of variegated yarn, especially for sweaters, is has been going out for like six years.

SPEAKER_01 3:07

That was the second thing on my list.

SPEAKER_00 3:08

Yeah. What do you what are your thoughts on that?

SPEAKER_01 3:11

Um, you know, it was it's funny because it was always a little bit hard for me to jump on to the variegated trend. I'm not, I don't feel like I'm good at ordering variegated yarns from dyers. In fact, I would frequently ask dyers to put together a palette for me because that feels like that's not my strength. So I'm hugely relieved to see the demand for wildly variegated yarn going down. Um, I am all about hand dyes in subtle variegated or maybe tonals. Um, I think there's so much beautiful hand-dyed yarn out there along those lines. And um, I'm so excited that that's where the trend is moving because the really bright and wild stuff. I mean, it's had its heyday, and I did make a few sweaters that I love. I think my Zweg's sweater, a Caitlin Hunter pattern, I used some pretty, pretty variegated yarn. Um, but again, I I paired it with a really classic solid.

SPEAKER_00 4:07

So that's the thing.

SPEAKER_01 4:09

I'm liking this trend.

SPEAKER_00 4:11

Yeah, if I use a variegated yarn, which is very rare, it's usually a very subtle one. I rarely will use it in a sweater. I usually will use it like in a shawl or something or socks. But if I am gonna use it in a sweater, it's gonna be paired with a solid to tone it down and create a little more balance. And that's just me. So okay, we are on board with the variegated.

SPEAKER_01 4:32

Yeah, so I had written down away from variegated toward more subtle and classic in color um yarn trends.

SPEAKER_00 4:40

I am with you on that. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 4:43

Um I can tell you also if we back up really quick to the boxy trend, that has made um the barriers to sweater knitting so much lower. And so we have so many more customers willing to take on a sweater when we can tell them it's two rectangles and then two little squares for your sleeves. It's gonna be a piece of cake, we'll help you through it. That is so much easier than walking through a pieced sweater with set-in sleeves and shoulder shaping. Way easier barrier to convince them to jump in.

SPEAKER_00 5:15

Yeah, absolutely. I I'm with you on that. And that's a really good point because I don't know that we often think about how the more complicated construction styles are potentially keeping people from trying sweaters. Yeah, I personally don't enjoy seaming. I think I've told you before my this is did I tell you my seaming story, like why I decided probably seaming wasn't for me. It it's I don't think so. Do you think that I forgot? No? Okay.

SPEAKER_01 5:45

Well, I don't mind you in a sweater doing the running man.

SPEAKER_00 5:49

I know, kind of, kind of. I I mean, kind of a long story, but I my thing with knitting is once I've finished like one sock, I don't want to knit the other sock, right? So when I'm knitting pieces, I finish one piece and I'm like, okay, I feel like I should be finished. I don't want to have to knit another piece. So what I did, I was commissioned to design a sweater based on a photo from an old classic TV show. It was an award-winning, like ugly sweater award kind of thing. And this woman wanted to commission me to knit it for her daughter's boyfriend. But I designed it, knit the pieces. But as I would finish a piece, I would fold it up and put it away. And what I forgot was that at some point in knitting, I think the front piece maybe, or I don't know, one of the pieces. And it had complicated intarja and a lot of stuff going on. But when I went to put them together, the two pieces weren't the same length because at some point I had decided to add some length to I think the back because I realized it needed a little bit more. So I had to cut apart the front with all of this complicated stuff, add length, kitchener it back. Oh dear. It's just such a headache. And it was confirmation for me that I don't need to be sewing seams on anything. And I just enjoy a seamless piece. I love the way that happens together.

SPEAKER_01 7:11

So yeah, that was a trend I was really happy to see when we moved away from all the the piecing and tailored to one piece top down. Um, so yeah, that was great.

SPEAKER_00 7:21

What else you got?

SPEAKER_01 7:22

This is a trend that I think is really interesting, and I probably wouldn't recognize it myself because of my age demographic, but I think that um there's definitely a trend where pattern and inspiration, um, pattern discovery and inspiration is now happening less on Ravelry and more on video platforms like TikTok and YouTube Shorts. Yeah. Um or reels on Instagram. So I think that's really interesting. And it's something I'm seeing customers are coming in and they're having their phones to show us where they saw this thing and not because they saw it on Ravelry or have a link to it on Ravelry. Um that's so that's an interesting trend. That's like a little micro trend when you know Ravelry came along after the store opened and it was just the hottest thing. And now I'm seeing it recede a little bit in terms of where you're going for inspiration to find new patterns, new designers, things like that.

SPEAKER_00 8:22

Yeah, I I agree with you. And I think that Ravelry for all the great things that it brought to our industry, so I mean, it brought us forward uh so significantly, but then it also sort of stuck there and it hasn't continued to progress beyond that. So I'm not surprised really to see that other more kind of trend forward and modern yeah, or lack of a better word, platforms are maybe doing better in that regard. That makes sense. Um what other what other trends do you think are leaving us or have left?

SPEAKER_01 8:56

Well, I I can say only for my shop environment, my shop ecosystem, but uh definitely shawl knitting has dropped off significantly. Yeah. So it used to be that um you could stock a whole lot of really interesting different fingering weight yarns, and people could put together two, three, four of them from different brands and everything into some really great new shawl that had just come out. And um, I was making bundles for things like that all the time. I was even designing things like that. And it's just I feel like the interest in that has almost just fallen off a cliff in the last six months or maybe 12 months.

SPEAKER_00 9:34

Interesting.

SPEAKER_01 9:35

Yeah, in favor of sweater knitting.

SPEAKER_00 9:37

Well, I'm I'm a sweater-first knitter, that's my most favorite thing. So I'm okay with that trend.

SPEAKER_01 9:42

I do that too I kind of have this bizarre thing where I really like making a shawl. I just never wear it.

SPEAKER_00 9:48

I have just recently started to I wear them sort of like a wound-up scarf around my neck. I don't wear them like a shawl.

SPEAKER_01 9:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:58

But I've never really worn any of the ones I've ever designed or knit until recently. And I made one that I think it was the colors. All of a sudden I realized, oh, I I might actually wear one if the colors match every single thing I own, like that one did. And it just was so perfect. So I took it on my trip to Ireland uh with knitting tours a few months ago, and I was like, this is actually this has worked out nicely. So, but again, I'm not typically a shawl knitter, so that's okay with me.

SPEAKER_01 10:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:28

Do you have any other trends that you've seen?

SPEAKER_01 10:31

Well, I I can tell you about a trend that I'm ready to see go away.

SPEAKER_00 10:34

What is it?

SPEAKER_01 10:35

It's so terrible. I feel so catty. I'm just really over the skinny scarf. The little I don't want to like say a name of one because there's a million iterations. And it I'm not saying it's not cute because I think it can be really cute. In fact, one of my favorite pictures of myself, I'm wearing one. But it was just like for a while there, that was all you could see on the front page of Ravelry's Hot Right now was like 14 different versions of this little skinny scarf. Um and I was like, okay, are we done with this yet?

SPEAKER_00 11:07

Yeah, I mean, to be fully transparent, there is a skinny scarf in my book, Knit and One, but in my defense, that's the only kind of scarf you can make with one exactly.

SPEAKER_01 11:18

I was just gonna say the whole point of the book was one skein project.

SPEAKER_00 11:21

So but I'm with you. I actually like more substance to whatever I'm wrapping around my neck, so I do want a chunkier something, you know.

SPEAKER_01 11:30

Yeah, right. Like I want it, I want if my my coat is zipped up, I don't want there to be like air holes, pockets that can reach skin or anything, you know?

SPEAKER_00 11:39

Yeah, yeah. No, I agree. Uh, can I say a trend that I think is starting to go away? This is gonna be my terrible thing to say out loud, and that it's my hot take. I will probably be skewered. I will be skewered over this tell me statement. But something that I'm ready to see go are fades.

SPEAKER_01 12:00

Oh, I thought you were going in a different direction. We'll come back to that. I'm okay with that too. I mean, I still think that there's a place for it, and I, you know, I'm tempted by making um using stash to make fades and stuff like that, but yeah, it was faded everywhere for a while.

SPEAKER_00 12:14

I think that it's just very anchored. It and I don't even have a problem with the look of it. The look, you know, a gradient is a gradient, you know, that's a fun idea. But for sweaters specifically, I feel like it's the avocado green refrigerator of of our time. Like it's standard, like it was super cool and super trendy at the time, but it will date us. I feel like that style is gonna date us in a particular, you know, moment in time. And again, please do not come after me for this. I feel like I'm gonna get a lot of hate.

SPEAKER_01 12:48

I don't think that's as controversial as I'm worried it is.

SPEAKER_00 12:51

I hope, I hope not. But I just and I think this also probably speaks to the fact that I am a solid color netter.

SPEAKER_01 12:57

Well, I was gonna say that kind of that kind of like joins in with the idea of hand-dyed, multi-variegated yarns also kind of decreasing in popularity because the a lot of those were used in fades. Um, yeah. So conversely, as all of this like color interest is kind of receding, I'm seeing a ton of texture interest take its place. So lace and cables and even baubles and lots of-it's my time to shine, finally.

SPEAKER_00 13:26

Because I am not a color work knitter. I can do color work. I have a few things that I will occasionally do, but I don't enjoy knitting color work. Um, and I also don't wear patterned clothes. My clothes are all either stripes or solids, and I suspect that that's why I'm not a big color work knitter because it's just not how I dress. I love the look of it. I love to see other people's projects. So don't get me wrong, I think they're gorgeous, but they're just not what I wear. And I don't enjoy making them. So I have always been a texture stripes, texture, cables, lace, all of that. And I feel like for a while I was sort of off trend because I wasn't getting on the bandwagon of the city.

SPEAKER_01 14:06

All of her like having their heyday in the last year. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:11

Yeah. And I actually have to say that I think that Caitlin Hunter is the one that made those popular. I think that she is, she's so fashionable and has such a good eye for fashion. And if I remember right, that's her background is in fashion. And when she started coming out with color work yolks, that trend not only spread across, and I'm not saying yeah, and I'm not saying no one ever did color work. I agree.

SPEAKER_01 14:37

But I agree.

SPEAKER_00 14:39

But her styles uh were so modern and fun and fresh. And I felt like she actually contributed to that becoming mainstream in clothing brands, so yeah, like in regular, you know, buy off the rack clothes. So, um, so you know, kudos to her for making that style so fresh and so fun. And inevitably, styles change. So yeah, it's nice that we're coming around to things that are more in my wheelhouse. Oh, yay! Yay, it's my moment.

SPEAKER_01 15:12

Well, that's great. I mean, because I think it just goes to show like how well Watermark was received. Um, the in case nobody knows what I'm talking about, that's the Pattern Marie released in um July that everybody has been knitting for the four-day knit along, but it's all over lace. And people just got have been gobbling it up. And I have never heard so many of my own knitters, uh my knitters, like I own them. My customers talking about making this sweater again. Um we had our last Zoom, I asked how many of you are planning to make either make the same one again or make the other version, the cardigan versus the pullover, and it was like two-thirds of them, which is insane. And I'm on my third. So uh I think everyone's craving this texture, you know? They were they're they're enjoying it.

SPEAKER_00 15:59

It's music to my ears. Uh, it's an absolute delight to me. The only thing I love as much or more than texture would be stripes.

SPEAKER_01 16:08

Oh, that's what I was just gonna say. Okay, tell me stripes. I am so loving the stripe thing, and you see them everywhere right now. And you know, but Jill, who works for me, she is always on top of test knitting the newest and latest and greatest um with the big designers, and there's a lot of stripes still happening. So that is a trend that is staying strong, and I'm for it.

SPEAKER_00 16:29

Me too. I think stripes forever. I don't care what anyone says. I did do when you remember, do you remember Spill the Tea? That was a four-day nid long a couple of years ago. And then I wore mine yesterday. Oh, that's right. I saw it in your live stream, and you were so cute. I had just a couple of little horizontal stripes, I think kind of upper body. It wasn't, or it was not even, was it like a textural, it wasn't like solid stripes, it was a texture.

SPEAKER_01 16:56

Yeah in between.

SPEAKER_00 16:57

Lace with a little stripe in between. And I remember when that came out, someone sent me a grouchy email saying, Well, I don't like horizontal stripes. And I thought, you know what? I'm not for you then because I am a horizontal stripe person. I like those a lot. And I'm sure you'll find lots of lovely designers who don't do horizontal stripes.

SPEAKER_01 17:14

Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 17:15

But they are for me.

SPEAKER_01 17:16

We don't have to all be for everybody.

SPEAKER_00 17:18

No, it's okay. It's all right. I'm I'm all about that. I looked online to see what the mainstream fashion trends in knitwear would be.

SPEAKER_01 17:29

Do tell. Do tell.

SPEAKER_00 17:30

And uh here's I don't agree with all of them, but what they're saying are knitted, long knitted cardigans and coats that takes some patience. I have that, I have a couple of long ones, like Reed's port. Do you remember that one? And Lotta. Well, that was more of a dress, but anyway, so long knitted cardigans, capes and ponchos. No, I'll say no, thank you. I was very surprised about that. Poncho, I'm okay with capes, can't I'm gonna say hard no to the capes. Ponchos, it depends.

SPEAKER_01 18:07

Right.

SPEAKER_00 18:08

But I have this visceral reaction now because once upon a time I used all my scraps to create a really bold, striped, fun, kind of random scrappy poncho. And as I was walking to get my mail, a kid yelled out the window of his car at me and said, How's it going, Harry Potter? So I'm dying. I've never heard this story. I know. So I don't know how I feel about pumpers anymore. In my mind, they seem like a great, especially for travel like airports, but not with stripes, we'll say that. Not multicolor, not stripes. That's a hard name.

SPEAKER_01 18:59

I'm literally crying right now. Oh I cannot believe I've never heard that story.

SPEAKER_00 19:03

I can't believe I've never told you. It was a long time ago. It was before I knew you, but still.

SPEAKER_01 19:07

Oh Lord. Okay, so yeah, uh ponchos, they gotta be really classic. Um the church mouse poncho is like the epitome of a classic poncho that I could get behind, but definitely I'm not a fan. I mean, I remember capes, they were kind of like a big thing back in like 2009, 2010. Didn't like them then either.

SPEAKER_00 19:30

Capes are capes are anything else? Yeah, button-up cardigans, expressive texture, zip-up cardigans, which you like that. Yeah, that's fine. It's a little sportier. An um classic crew neckline, which is what I did with Watermark, calm neutral color palettes, sweater scarf combos, like layering multiple knits together. And I thought, well, I can get behind that, especially if it gets cold.

SPEAKER_01 19:56

Maybe that'll get me to wear some of my shawl scarfy things.

SPEAKER_00 20:00

Right. And then uh there was a lot of talk about texture, a lot of talk about layering. Uh, one thing that I saw in a lot of the images, in the spirit of layering, if I could get my words straight here, one of the things that I noticed, which I personally love, it's very preppy, but the cardigan tied over your shoulders. Oh, yeah. Like a very thin little cardigan. I I personally appreciate that trend, even though it makes me look like a little nerd that is a teacher's pet. I don't care. I like that for me. So there. Own it. I'm all over it. Like I'd be less likely probably to wear a sweater with a zipper because it's probably a little sporty for my style.

SPEAKER_01 20:47

And yeah, that I grabbed for you too strongly. Yeah. Um, and now that I've put in my first zipper into a hand knit with this um furry vest that I made last late winter, I'm feeling confident now about the whole adding a zipper thing. Like it wasn't nearly as bad as I had built it up to be in my mind.

SPEAKER_00 21:05

So it's not so bad. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:08

And also I'm really um unlikely to finally ever sew buttons onto anything. So maybe if there's a zipper option, I'll actually have a closure.

SPEAKER_00 21:17

There you go. Yeah. Uh what speaking of one of the things that the trend, who knows how accurate this thing is, but it was on YouTube. So it must be true. Yeah, it must be true. Right. Uh, but one of the things they talked about were cardigans that were buttoned, like uh clothes. I don't usually wear my cardigans buttoned. I usually wear them open. I'm a woman of a certain age and it's very flattering, you know, to have that like vertical visual in the middle of your button plackets. But, you know, okay. I I guess those buttons are there for a reason. I guess buttoning them could be a thing.

SPEAKER_01 21:53

As a busty girl, I would rather make it a pullover with a faux button placket down the middle. Um, so that it actually could not come open because I hate the pull that can happen um at my bus line that just makes me crazy. And that's part of the reason I've probably grown to hate having my cardigans buttoned, but yeah. Yeah. I can appreciate the look of it. I mean, I do love the look of a classic kind of like 40s-era cardigan buttoned up. Yeah. Um, concurring with what you found, when I was at H H, I would say that there was a definite trend towards textural knits in the samples companies were putting out for their newly yarns. So that definitely jibes. Um, and longer cardigans. I saw quite a few of those too.

SPEAKER_00 22:42

Nice. Okay, so maybe we're moving away from some of those cropped lengths toward some of those longer ones. That's interesting. Do you think that people listening to this will have any strong opinions one way or the other about what we're seeing? Do you think that it's our location? Do you think it's because we're in Oregon and we're seeing like a West Coast high?

SPEAKER_01 23:08

We have to be impacted by that, right? Like to say we weren't would just be naive. I just would love to hear, though, from people if they've got different opinions or are seeing something different in their neck of the woods, people that don't live in our Pacific Northwest little bubble. Um, because I think that that does have an impact. Yeah, like it can't not. So getting feedback from anyone listening, we would love to hear if you've seen a different trend in what's hot, what's not. I would love to hear about that.

SPEAKER_00 23:39

Yeah, it would be really interesting to know because I always wonder if we're like an echo chamber because we we live in the same part of the country and probably have very similar customers. So I don't know if we're getting the full picture. One yarn that has recently kind of popped up again that I'm I would have said 10 years ago I wasn't a fan, and I'm starting to think that I might be a fan now is the bouquet, the little baby skinny like boucle. Yeah, really fine boucle. I'm finding that to be a little interesting. That's exactly the one. Yeah, because I've been working with it lately, and I'm like, I kind of like this. I kind of like this fabric it's making, and maybe it is because it is a creates a little more of a textured, just overall fabric, which is really nice. So I wouldn't mind seeing more of that.

SPEAKER_01 24:26

Yeah, that's really fun. And in full disclosure, the picture of myself wearing the skinny scarf that I really said that I like of myself.

SPEAKER_00 24:34

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_01 24:35

It's in the La Mana Torino.

SPEAKER_00 24:37

Okay. Well, you win some you lose.

SPEAKER_01 24:40

Yeah, so it's soft and fun and yummy and texturally interesting. Um, I didn't knit it, Jill did, of course.

SPEAKER_00 24:47

So, Jill. Well, I think that we will definitely see more texture, especially for me, because that's what I like to do. More stripes. I I just started a striped design and I thought, I don't care if nobody wants it. I want it for myself. So I'm gonna design it for me. And if anybody else wants to knit it, great.

SPEAKER_01 25:04

That's the best way to go about it, in my opinion.

SPEAKER_00 25:07

Yeah, I've got to. I've just got to be true to myself.

SPEAKER_01 25:10

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 25:10

Because it's not fun to design something that you don't really like.

SPEAKER_01 25:14

You do you, boo.

SPEAKER_00 25:15

You do you too. Cool.

SPEAKER_01 25:17

Well, this has been fun.

SPEAKER_00 25:19

Yeah, this has been a nice chat.

SPEAKER_01 25:21

Yeah, we should we should try to revive the trends talk every you know half year or so just to see how things evolve.

SPEAKER_00 25:29

I think that's a good idea because and we might eat our words and change our minds.

SPEAKER_01 25:33

Oh, absolutely. I completely reserve the right to change my opinion about all of this.

SPEAKER_00 25:37

Me too.

SPEAKER_01 25:38

And me too in the future.

SPEAKER_00 25:40

Absolutely. Nothing is set in stone here. Ever. Uh, we may contradict ourselves next time we have this conversation.

unknown 25:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:48

Next week, right? And they'll be like, I could swear that on your podcast, you said you love scrappy ponchos. That's what I heard. Yeah, no, it's gonna be it's gonna be fun, but I agree that you know it it ebbs and flows. And sometimes a style that you don't think you're into until someone reimagines it in a way you'd never thought of before, all of a sudden you're like, okay, uh, lesson learned. All of a sudden I'm into this. So yeah, you gotta be open to that. Yep, I agree.

SPEAKER_01 26:18

All right. Well, this has been fun, Marie. What are we gonna talk about next time?

SPEAKER_00 26:23

That's such a great question. Um so next time we are going to do a little four-day kidlong post-mortem debrief. Now that it's over, well, it's not over right now, but by the time you hear this, it'll be almost over. Um, and kind of a breakdown of, as Sarah calls it, the anatomy of a Nidlong. I love that phrasing. I love the idea of talking about how how can you run a successful Nidlong for your shop? How can you run one with your friends? How does that work? I remember Anne at Yarn Folk, I'm gonna give her a little shout out years ago messaging me and saying, you should teach a thing about how to run a Nidlong. And so this is this is gonna be for you, Anne. It's gonna be my my quick and dirty on how to how to have a successful Nidlong. So we'll we'll talk about that next time. And for those of you who are participating in Nidlongs, there's gonna be lots for you there too, because we'll talk about how to participate in a way that fits your knitting style and all of that good stuff. So I think that'll be a good chat for next time.

SPEAKER_01 27:30

Awesome. That sounds really lovely. Well, this has been fun, and as we said earlier, if you've got some opinions about our opinions relating to trends in the knitting world, we would love to hear them. But also just remember We tried to tell you. We did, we really did. We'll see you next time.