Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 Knitting Trends
- Susanna
- 3 hours ago
- 3 min read
After a wee summer break it's time to get back in the knitting saddle. And what better way to do it than taking a look at new DROPS Design patterns to be released over the coming months. Here are my top 5 trend picks from their Fall 2025/Winter 2026 voting gallery.
If the vote is already over, keep an eye on the DROPS website for the patterns. Please don't email me — I'm not privy to their release schedule.
Cables Galore
The first thing that immediately struck me looking at the voting gallery is the huge amount of cabled patterns. Cables are of course a fall wardrobe staple but this season they've been amped up to eleven.
The DROPS fall and winter collections include cables in the classic aran style with wide center panels (left), all-over cabled designs (middle), or cables used as an eye-catching accent or decorative detail (right).
There's even a cabled blanket done sampler-style with various cabled stitch patterns.
Saddle Up, Partner!
Interesting shoulder constructions still continue to be very trendy. The European shoulder is not going anywhere: there are multiple examples of it in the gallery, be it in simple stockinette, textured, or colorwork garments.
But there's something new on the horizon! DROPS are quick to absorb what indie designers are doing and now it's saddle shoulders. There are multiple garments in the line-up that use this shoulder construction that features a wide strip of fabric extending from the neck and into the sleeve.
Full-fashioned Is Fully in Fashion
Another design feature DROPS has adopted from current indie patterns is the use of the so-called full(y)-fashioned increases and decreases. It's such a trendy way to shape garments that even the latest two issues of Knitty have a an article about them: decreases in spring + summer 2025 and increases in first fall 2025.
There's a bit of a history behind the term and how it's evolved over time — into which Kate Atherley delves in the excellent articles linked above — but in today's parlance full-fashioned shaping refers to making increases and decreases in a way that draws attention to them. Contrary to what hand knitters usually want, blending increases and decreases into the fabric as invisibly as possible, this practice borrowed from the ready-to-wear industry makes a design feature out of shaping.
In the upcoming DROPS fall and winter pattern collections full-fashioned shaping has trickled from garments also to accessories in the form of arched gussets in mitts and mittens or cabled decreases in crown shaping.
Subtle Shades
Fall is usually the time for deep, rich, intense colors like maroon, plummy purple, curry yellow, or forest green. Not this season according to DROPS. Another trend they've borrowed from current indie knitfluencer/designers is the color palette… or rather, lack thereof.
The fall/winter line-up is mainly made up of off-whites, beiges, light grays, and old-rose pinks. Subtle and sophisticated? Or bland and insipid? You decide.
Color Mixing
But not everything is devoid of color. Combining different yarns in the same or similar colors to create fuzzy and fluffy textures is still very much a thing. Another way to add an interesting dimension to your knits is to use yarns of different colors to create a heathered, marled, or tweedy look.
The DROPS collection includes multiple examples of this, either combining two solid colors of different shades or pairing a solid with a speckled or variegated yarn, especially using their new DK-weight sock yarn Fiesta.
What's your favorite trend? Let me know in the comments!
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