Designing Plans for 2018

It's the beginning of a shiny new year, the best time for making resolutions and plans.

In December of last year I invited my mailing list subscribers to answer a little poll: what they love about knitting, what types of techniques they use, and what kinds of items they love to make. I got so many lovely responses and comments all over the world, and had a blast reading through them.

The first question on the list: what knitting techniques or stitch patterns do you love?

By far the most popular knitting technique is lace, followed closely by stockinette, cables, and short rows. Garter stitch and stripes were not far off.

The flipside: What knitting techniques or stitch patterns have you not yet tried?

It's pretty clear from this graph that advanced knitting techniques that involve two or more colors are not something that knitters first go for. Topping the list of unfamiliar knitting techniques were doubleknitting, intarsia, and brioche. The next two, mosaic or slipped stitches and colorwork are also multi-color techniques.

I then asked my subscribers to describe what they love about my designs. This word cloud is the result.

The top three things on the list were beautiful designs, colors, and clear instructions.

The last question: what kinds of designs would you like to see in 2018?

It looks like there's some garment designing in my future! Over a half of the respondents would like to see more sweaters and cardigans. Did you notice I just posted a testing call for a cardigan called Pontefract? That's coming out in early March and I have the next one on the needles as well. Fall is sweater weather so I'm planning on releasing some cozy garments later in the year, too.

The next most popular item was mittens or fingerless mitts. A fix for all you mitt knitters is coming very soon: Starvine Mitts are scheduled for release next week!

Next up, shawls. Spring/summer is definitely shawl season with at least two shawl designs planned. And I love knitting, wearing, and designing socks so I'm sure you'll see some of those as well.

 Other things the respondents wanted to see are just more patterns in general, KALs, fun stuff, and surprises. The Free Falling KAL is still going on in my Ravelry group with a few days left to go. And I've been planning one, perhaps even two mystery KALs...

More info on the first MKAL is coming in just a few short weeks! The best way to keep up-to-date with new pattern releases and any other special announcements is by joining my mailing list. See you there!

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