It's a Stitch Up

Boxy shapes at French Connection

Winter is well and truly on the way, which thankfully means the high street is full of lovely knitwear. Many of the current trends translate easily into hand-knitting.

Shape

French Connection are going boxy – chunky, unstructured pieces are adorned with geometric patterns. Over-sized belts balance out what would otherwise be a difficult silhouette to carry-off. For a hand-knit alternative, look no further than Kim Hargreaves’ ‘Storm’ cardigan.

The batwing shape is echoed in finer knit dresses and sweaters. French Connection also have interesting sideways-knit garments including large-cabled sweaters knit from sleeve to sleeve.

Grey cabled sweater at H&M

Texture

Cosy, cabled, bobbly cardigans and sweaters can be seen everywhere. Whether it’s silver or charcoal, it’s got to be grey. Not sure how to knit bobbles? Watch a video on YouTube or read written instructions. Want bobbles of your own? There’s a lovely free pattern for a bobbly sweater with detatchable sleeves from the autumn issue of Knitty.

It’s surprisingly difficult to find grey yarn with that nice marl appearance – post below if you have a good source!

H&M (left) and Benetton (right) do bright stripes

Colour

It’s not all about grey – there’s plenty of colour around to brighten up the short winter days. Gold, magenta, emerald and orange dominate, both on their own and combined in thick stripes.

This is such an easy trend to duplicate so be bold! If you want to experiment with solid colour, Rowan Pure Wool DK is a great option, it’s affordable and comes in a stunning 42 colours. Try Mirasol Tik’a if you prefer cotton.