Aug 18, 20232 min read

Fall/Winter 2023/2024 Knitting Trends

Summer is coming to an end and fall will be here sooner than you think. The first signs of the rapidly-approaching autumn are already here: back-to-school ads of backpacks and pencil cases. The second: DROPS opens the vote for their upcoming fall and winter line-up of knitting patterns. (If the link doesn't work, it means voting is already over. Keep an eye on their website for the new patterns.)

Here are my top 5 knitting pattern trend picks for the Fall 2023 and Winter 2024 seasons.

#1 Basic Stitches

One of the sweater trends this fall is a fascination with extremely basic sweaters and super-simple constructions. There's a whole lot of garments featuring just two types of stitch patterns: plain stockinette and ribbing.

Can't get much simpler than a boxy stockinette sweater.

Drop-shoulder sweaters have already been very vogue for a number of years now. Raglans are the big hit this season while round yokes seem to have fallen by the wayside.

A basic stockinette raglan. How many do you need?

#2 Feature Raglans

As a counterpoint to the basic raglan, there are also loads of feature raglans in this season's pattern collection. This trend was also bubbling up in Spring and Summer 2020 patterns but now it's back with a vengeance.

Feature raglans feature something eye-catching in the raglan lines.

A feature raglan, by definition, is a garment using the raglan construction in which the eye is deliberately drawn to the raglan increases (or decreases, if working bottom up). In fact, raglan lines become the central design feature of the sweater in the form of cables, lace, or other stitch patterns that stand out from the rest.

#3 Traditional, My Dear Watson

Traditional sweater designs are also making a comeback in fall and winter 2023. Or perhaps they never went away completely?

Among this season's sweater offerings are a few very familiar-looking designs, such as Guernsey/Gansey-style textured garments, a classic Norwegian fisherman's sweater with its iconic dash-dot pattern, and a couple of circular-yoke knits with triangular, lopapeysa-esque colorwork motifs.

#4 Ribbed Beanies

As with sweaters, accessories are also very simple in style and construction. For instance, there are loads of extremely basic ribbed beanies in the collection, mostly with 2x2 ribbing throughout or just on the brim.

Stylish headwear du jour: a ribbed beanie.

There's even a double-layered one, Musselburgh style, except done in 1x1 ribbing.

Double-layered beanie worked in 1x1 ribbing

#5 Reinventing the Sophie

And while we're on the subject of accessories, here's one more. This fall DROPS are going all-in with the trendy mini shawls made über popular by Petite Knit's Sophie Scarf. They don't have just one or two but nine knitted versions (and three crocheted ones) of this small-scale, kerchief-style neck covering done in different weights of yarn. There's not much variation in styles, though: they're all knit either in garter or moss stitch.

I have a clear favorite among these trends... but what about you? Which trends are you looking forward to? Longing for the return of some knitwear style or construction? Sound off in the comments.

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