Spring and Summer 2025 Knitting Trends

14 hours ago2 min read

It's that time again! DROPS have opened up the vote for their spring and summer pattern collections. Let's take a look at the five big knitwear trends that have trickled from runways via ready-to-wear to knitting patterns.

If the vote is already over, keep an eye on the DROPS website for the patterns as they released over the coming weeks and months. Please don't email me — I'm not privy to their release schedule.

Back to Basics

Forget ganseys, colorwork and brioche — they're all out the window! This season the only stitches you're going to need are knits and purls… and sometimes even the purls are too much.

Garter stitch and stockinette, can't get more basic than that.

Sure, there's the odd lace sweater here and a couple of cables there but, according to DROPS, this season's knits are made up of the two most basic stitch patterns: stockinette and garter stitch. Back to basics indeed.

A Feminine Touch

While the garments themselves might be made in very basic stitch patterns, there's still quite a lot detailing and embellishments that add a certain feminine flair to the otherwise simple knits.

Add a feminine flourish to your knitwear with ruffles, scallops, and ties.

This season's knitwear features a lot of scalloped edges, ruffles, bows, or other tie closures.

Euro Shoulder Versus Set-in Sleeves

In the European a.k.a. English-tailored a.k.a classic shoulder the shoulder seam is moved to the back of the garment.

The Euro shoulder is not going anywhere. Continuing its reign that started in Spring & Summer 2024, it's now infiltrated summer wear, too. I'm seeing this shoulder construction on tees and even tank tops.

But a challenger emerges? For the very first time since I've been doing these DROPS trend posts, I'm now noticing a definite uptick on the amount of garments with set-in sleeves. This is a welcome return to a more structured way of constructing sweaters after years of shapeless, seamless boxes.

Warm Weather Knits

As the weather gets warmer, the sleeves get shorter… or even non-existent.

Go short sleeved or completely sleeveless for the summer months.

In this season pattern range I'm seeing a lot of three-quarter length sleeves, vests and tank tops, and spaghetti straps.

All these summery garments are knit in plant fibers.

Material choices also reflect this desire for cooler knits with garments made of summery yarns like cotton, linen, or a mix of the two fibers.

Fluff for the Summer

But Scandinavian summers can be unpredictable. In addition to garments suitable for warmer climates, I'm also seeing quite a lot of sweaters knit in wintery yarns such as mohair, bouclé, or brushed alpaca.