5 Knit, Crochet & Yarn Trends for 2018

We’re turning our imaginations toward the yarn trends for 2018, and we’re all heart-eyes for the trends coming our way in the New Year. We’ve gathered them here, and we hope they’ll call your name the way they’re calling ours! One thing is clear about the trends for 2018: they’re all about you doing you. Express your personality and style by riffing on the familiar, and taking it in a new direction. Whether it’s the shape, the feel, the details, or colorwork, there’s infinite opportunity in the New Year for you to celebrate who you are, with yarn.

The Yarn Trends for 2018

Pin to save this for later!

1 Loose and Easy

This look began to balloon in the Fall of 2017, and will only continue to amplify in the New Year. While bulky knits have been big for the past few years, the shapes are blossoming into gentle abundance. Think over-sized collars that stand up, swoop, and fold, sleeves that billow, and bodies with fullness & length. This look is a call to take up some space!

Photographed by Cedric Viollet for Jalouse

Treat yourself with the luxury of more material, celebrate abundance that is undeniable. The drape is everything. The nature of knitwear will keep the architecture gentle, making the looks gentle enough for everyday, but powerful enough for a bold statement. The bolder the silhouette, the more high-fashion the overall effect. For a Lion Brand look-alike, look no farther than the Knit Cozy Collared Pullover.

Knit Cozy Collared Pullover

2 All-Over Texture

All-over texture has us feeling all the feels. This trend is another gesture towards abundance, but with a twist – abundant variety of textures! Multiple textures are a brave way to boast your personal brand, acknowledging all the complexity of one’s personal style. The key to pulling off a multi-textured look? The more, the merrier. The more different each added texture, the more they’ll all complement one another in their diversity. No aspect of your Out Of The Day will disappear as a staple, each piece presents an opportunity to highlight a facet of your individuality! For an OOtD-worthy piece, check out our Myrtle Beach Pullover (Crochet) below in Vanna’s Choice Aquamarine.

Think of it as a fabulous opportunity to wear novelty items more often, rather than saving them for special occasions. And as for novelty, now is the time to cast on those specialty fibers you’ve been saving for a rainy day.

3 Unexpected Details

Chances are you’ve seen this trend peeking out at shoulders and elbows as you’re browsing your favorite retailers online. ‘Unexpected details’ are stylish wake-up calls to traditional patterns – surprising moments that diverge from the norm. It might be about laying bare: a slit at an elbow, or a series of openings along the shoulder. Like our Curvy Girl Knit Tunic, in the center photograph below!

We’re talking so much more than the cold-shoulder look of 2017! Or it could be an unexpected pocket (or three!), a ribbon closure around the wrist, or an usual overlap. Change it up, break from routine, and stray from the herd. These details interrupt the traditional rhythm of any pattern, for a surprise that expresses individuality.

4 Yoke Sweaters

Yokes are traditionally a structural element of a garment that supports the material below – think yoke skirts of earlier eras. But in knitwear they present a purely decorative opportunity, one that frames the face and is infinitely personalize-able. To ‘yoke’ means to bring together, to join (in marriage, in a team), and this pattern is a chance to bring together unexpected colors to form a stunning design. For our timeless variation, see above, the Yoke Sweater Knit Pattern.

Image from Brooklyn Tweed

By circling the shoulders, this trend draws the eye up toward the face, like the picture-frame collars of Jane Austen’s day. The emphasis of the finished product is on the individual – both in how its shape highlights the wearer, and in how the pattern reveals the maker. Get inspired to get well-yoked in the New Year.

5 Intarsia & Color Blocking

These colorwork techniques are graphic and bold, bringing out the abstract artist in all of us. Since the 7th century, intarsia (‘to insert’) has been used by artisans to indicate luxury and prestige, because of the time and attention needed to work in this style. For ages, crafters have used it to create their own content. For inspiration, see our Color Grid Pullover (Knit) below, and create your own color palette.

LB Color Grid Pullover (Knit)

No idea is too wild, too fanciful. Each new color or shape introduces a motif, like in music, and creates a complex visual rhythm with which the eye moves around the piece. If the yoke sweater pattern creates a visual rhythm to frame the face, then intarsia and color blocking are like jazz. This trend invites improvisation, whether you’re venturing into the unknown to create your own pattern & design, or subtly swapping a suggested color for something more you.

Bring it all to the crafting table.

You Do You

Whichever trend calls your name for the start of the New Year, we hope you’ll follow it boldly! We’ll keep you updated as trends change, and keep the patterns coming to keep your Works In Progress fashion-forward.

SaveSave