Fall 2026 and Winter 2027 Knitting Trends

Susanna
10 minutes ago
2 min read

Summer is almost over and it's time to start planning your winter knits. DROPS have once again opened the voting gallery, a sneak peek of sorts into their upcoming fall and winter pattern line-up. As usual, I've perused the gallery, trying to suss out what's going to be trending in knitwear in the colder months. Here are my top 5 trend picks for Fall 2026 and Winter 2027.

Back to Basics

One of the most obvious things that hit when looking at the photos is the sheer volume of extremely basic designs. All in all, I counted around 60 sweater and cardigan patterns that are nothing but stockinette with nary another detail in sight. Where's the creativity? Is bland the new black?

If you're hankering for a basic top-down raglan, that'll certainly be very hot this fall (top row). If you're feeling a bit more adventurous, spice it up with some garter stitch (bottom row).

Full-fashioned Shaping

This trend continues on from fall 2025. Full(y)-fashioned shaping refers to making increases and decreases in a way that draws attention to them. Contrary to what hand knitting patterns usually do — 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 them.

The upcoming DROPS fall and winter line-up has quite a few designs that feature decorative or cabled increases at the raglan lines or for armhole shaping.

Diamonds & Lattices

Speaking of cables, sweater designs with lozenge- or rhombus-shaped cables are very much on trend this fall.

When done in large scale or using chunky yarn, these diamond-shaped cables are quite the eye catcher (left). In smaller scale, they can be combined to make lattice cables that evoke traditional aran patterns (right).

Return of the Yoke?

Circular colorwork yokes in the Icelandic lopapeysa style were extremely fashionable a few years back but they fell by the wayside for a while. Now it looks like DROPS are trying to bring this trend back. There are a handful of designs with geometric motifs around the round yoke whereas the rest of the garment is done in plain one-color stockinette.

Still Got the Blues

Fall fashion palettes are usually rife with deep, rich, intense colors: maroons, purples, oranges, or forest greens. But this season DROPS have taken a cue from Pantone's "Seasonless Shades" palette: amid a sea of endless gray-ish neutrals is a lot of blue.

From soft skies to denim to full-on navy, DROPS have got it all. Pair this a la mode color with any of the other trends above and you've got the makings of a true top-trend garment for the upcoming months.

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