Favorite New Favorites of 2019

Best knitting patterns of the year (Bouquet by Junko)

I’m awed every single year when I scroll back through New Favorites to see how many fantastic patterns I’ve posted here, knowing they’re still only a fraction of everything that caught my eye and made me pause in admiration for a moment (or obsess for weeks or months). As is my annual custom, I’ve rounded up my very favorite favorites below — by which I simply mean the ones I personally have the strongest urge to cast on and wear. Each pattern listed includes a link to the post in which it originally appeared, if you want to see what I had to say about it at the time and more of what was featured alongside — or you can scroll through the entirety of New Favorites at any time or just the annual Favorite New Favorites roundups! So much beauty and talent to behold.

MY HIGHEST ESTEEM
In any given year, my absolute favorite pattern is not necessarily the most creative or innovative, and I tend to skew more heavily toward wearability regardless, but in my humble opinion the best pattern of 2019 is equal parts creative/innovative and wearable, above, and that’s Junko Okamoto’s Bouquet Sweater (from Junko’s abstract Bouquet). Her use of RS and WS floats in creating a variety of “bouquets” of flowers that are then asymmetrically scattered across the garment … it’s amazing in the concept and execution, and I have seen several really beautiful examples walking around in the world. I hope in 2020 I may have the courage to make it my colorwork project for the year. (Since I seem to pretty reliably do one per year.)

. . . . .

Best knitting patterns of the year (sweaters)

SWEATERS
top: Column by Hiromi Nagasawa (from Simple pleasures)
row two, left: Tarn by Claire Walls (from Textured yokes)
row two, right: Eva by Julie Weisenberger (from Eva)
middle: Streaks by Keiko Kikuno (from Amirisu 19, all of it)
bottom, left: Escala by Alice Caetano (from Amirisu 19, all of it)
bottom, right: ふっくらケーブル模様のセーター by Yokota/Daruma (from Bulky beauties)

. . . . .

Best knitting patterns of the year (scarves)

SCARVES and COWL
top: Dyyni by Sari Nordlund (from The ones I’ve been waiting for)
middle left: Isadora by Berroco (from Fall warm-ups)
middle right: No-Cable Cable Scarf by Purl Soho (from Cables for the Cable-averse)
bottom: Lierne Cowl by Bristol Ivy (from Amirisu 19, all of it)

. . . . .

Best knitting patterns of the year (hats)

HATS
top: The Dawn Hat by Brandi Harper (from Holiday hat knitting cheat sheet: 10 skill-stretching patterns)
middle left: Oleander Reversible Hat by Laura Chau (from Texture, please!)
middle right: Hatdana by Denise Bayron (from Head kercheifs)
bottom: Hjarn Hat by Amber Platzer Corcoran (from Stranded purl hats)

. . . . .

Best knitting patterns of the year (socks)

SOCKS
top: Open Heart by Ainur Berkimbayeva (from Serious sock temptations)
bottom left: Chunky Slipper Socks by Churchmouse (from Simple pleasures)
bottom right: Thaba by Dawn Henderson (from Serious sock temptations)

. . . . .

I should note that my New Favorites picks aren’t always published within the year, and some of these may not have been 2019, but I’d love to hear what your favorites of the year have been!

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PREVIOUSLY in New Favorites: “Cables” for the cable-averse

Favorite New Favorites of 2018

Favorite New Favorites of 2018 - best knitting patterns

Of all the years, this is one where I feel most dramatically like WAIT! I haven’t even knitted anything from last year’s Favorite New Favorites yet! I’ve gone back to the patterns on that list over and over this year, and several I’ve continued to go on about during 2018, and yet somehow it’s already time to look back through this year’s and pull out the ones I most fervently want to not lose track of.

It was a really good year in knitting patterns, better than I even realized. To scroll back through the year’s New Favorites (which I recommend!) is to witness a lot of ingenuity and beauty, and yet there are loads of things I saved on Ravelry that haven’t even made it onto the blog. (Yet.) Trying to narrow it to the ones I simply admired the most, I was at risk of putting about 40 or 50 patterns into this post. So I decided to limit myself to just 12 patterns for the year: the ones I’d most like to actually knit and have. Which also means this could function as a queue for the coming year — if only people would stop with the new distractions!

BUT FIRST:

Simply based on how many times I’ve typed the words Carbeth Cardigan this year — and the fact that I did cast one on during my flight to Palm Springs last week — it’s clearly the pattern that bored the deepest hole into my brain this year. And then there are the ones I actually made: Grete and Hozkwoz.

And now the dozen …

Best sweater knitting patterns

SWEATERS
top: High Neck Pulloverby Tomoko Noguchi (as seen in Turtleneck season
middle left: Ridgeline Wrap Cardigan by Purl Soho (as seen in Those collars)
middle right: Breakwater Beach Vest by Irina Anikeeva (as seen in Way back to school sweaters)
bottom: Moosonee Sweater by Tara-Lynn Morrison (as seen in Wearable superbulky)

Best wraps knitting patterns

WRAPS
top: Ellsworth by Scott Rohr (as seen in Clever garter colorwork)
bottom left: Two-Point Cowl by Churchmouse (as seen in Two-point cowl)
bottom right: Wallace by Julie Hoover (as seen in Under wraps)

Best fingerless mitts patterns

MITTS
top: New Year’s Mitts by Veronika Jobe (as seen in Colorwork mitts)
bottom left: Weekend Walking Mitts by Dianna Walla (as seen in Quick Knits: Fingerless mitts)
bottom right: Tredje by Irina Anikeeva (as seen in Textured mitts)

Best hat knitting patterns

HATS
top: Tamitik by Shannon Cook (as seen in Quick Knits: Hats)
bottom: Adam by Rachel Atkinson (as seen in Quick Knits: Hats)

What were your favorite patterns this year — the ones you don’t want to let get away from you—

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PREVIOUSLY in New Favorites: Sock season

Favorite New Favorites of 2017

Favorite knitting patterns of 2017

Every December, I go back through the year’s New Favorites posts to see what patterns I had highlighted along the way and which of them I don’t want to lose track of as we head into another year of endless knitting temptations. The best of the best are always the ones I didn’t need reminded of because they’ve never stopped tapping a finger on my brain — I’ve gone back to them repeatedly, thought about yarns and colors and usefulness. This narrowed-down list leaves out so many beautiful and worthwhile patterns (scroll through the whole series to see) but these are ones I can most imagine having on my needles at some point. And by the way, I still want to make every single thing in last year’s list.

TEMPTATION OF THE YEAR
I’m reluctant to call Michele Wang’s simple-but-perfect Charles Pullover (above) the “Best” pattern of the year necessarily, but it’s the one I absolutely cannot get out of my brain, and definitely my very Favorite New Favorite. We’re into the time of year where I want to have on a big cozy turtleneck every single day, and my only one is 15 years old and looking it. So there’s an excellent chance this one will go from Fave to Made. (As seen in Mildly mannish cables)

Favorite knitting patterns of 2017

SWEATERS
top: Massaman by Elizabeth Smith (as seen in Massaman set)
middle left: Galloway* by Jared Flood (as seen in From BT fall/holiday)
middle right: Anker’s Sweater by PetiteKnit (as seen in Banded ribs)
bottom left: Vodka on the Rocks by Thea Colman (as seen in Vodka on the Rocks)
bottom right: Whelk by Martin Storey (as seen in Whelk)

Favorite knitting patterns of 2017

WEARABLE BLANKET
Veronika* by Shannon Cook (as seen in Veronika)

Favorite knitting patterns of 2017

SCARVES
top: Binary by Michele Wang (as seen in Texture by the yard)
bottom left: Facade by Shellie Anderson (as seen in Texture by the yard)
bottom right: Baedecker by Marina Skua (as seen in Baedecker)

Best knitting patterns of 2017

HATS
top left: Bulletproof Aran Hat by Chuck Wright (as seen in Aran-style hats)
top right: Voe Hat by Gudrun Johnston (as seen in From BT fall/holiday)
middle left: Huck* by Norah Gaughan (as seen in Huck)
middle right: Miguel Hat by Rosa Pomar (as seen in Holiday hat mania)
bottom left: The Adrian by Armenuhi Khachatryan (as seen in Adrian)
bottom right: Tincture by Andrea Mowry (as seen in Someday vs Right Away: Mosaic knitting)

Best knitting patterns of 2017

SOCKS AND SLIPPERS
Flaps by Cindy Pilon (as seen in Quickies! aka last-minute gifts)
Hansdatter Slippers* by Kristin Drysdale (as seen in Colorwork slippers)
Hot Chocolate Socks by Irina Dmitrieva (as seen in House socks)
Seamed Socks by Purl Soho (free pattern; as seen in House socks)

I feel like 2018 could be the year I finally knit my first scarf! How about you — what were your favorite patterns of the year?

*Asterisked patterns have been sent to me by the designer or publisher in the interim. I do not request that from anyone, but do feel compelled to note it.

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PREVIOUSLY in New Favorites: Quickies! (aka last-minute gifts)

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Favorite New Favorites of 2016

Favorite New Favorites of 2016

I never feature anything in New Favorites that I don’t truly love, but it’s always interesting for me, at the end of each year, to scroll back through them all and see which ones make my heart race and my fingers twitch the most. Or which I admire greatly versus really wanting knit and to have in my possession as finished objects. This year was not absent socks, scarves, shawls and blankets, but it was light on those things, and none of them made today’s list somehow. But what follows are my Favorite New Favorites for 2016—

PATTERN OF THE YEAR

There was only one pattern this year that had me lying awake at night thinking about it, and that’s Vidje by Kristin Ford, pictured up top. I’ve declared a year’s-best-pattern three times before — Stonecutter in 2013, and Aspen Socks (pattern of the year) and Marshal (sweater of the year) in 2015 — and I’ve yet to knit any of them.* But Vidje is the new Channel Cardigan for me — as in, the one I won’t stop fantasizing about until the day I’m wearing it, that I’ll spend months or possibly years knitting, and that I hope to love and wear for ages. You can read my previous remarks (and modification plans) on this one in New Favorites: Every stitch of the Tov collection.

*Stonecutter looks terrible on me, unfortunately; Marshal still occupies my thoughts on the regular; and I conceded at the time that I would likely never manage to knit Aspen.

Favorite New Favorites of 2016

WOMEN’S SWEATERS
top: Sourcebook Chunky Cardigan by Norah Gaughan (as seen in Exceptional shawl-collars)
bottom left: Bue by Nele Redwieck (as seen in Every stitch of the Tov collection)
bottom right: St. Brendan by Courtney Kelley (as seen in Finn Valley and St. Brendan)

Favorite New Favorites of 2016

MEN’S SWEATERS
top: Tamarack by Jared Flood
bottom left: Carver by Julie Hoover
bottom right: Auster by Michele Wang
(all three as seen in For Bob — or himever!)

Favorite New Favorites of 2016

LOUNGEWEAR
Crazy Feeling Sweater and Heartbreaker Shorts by Wool and the Gang (as seen in WATG knitted denim jammies)

Favorite New Favorites of 2016

HATS
clockwise from top left:
Divide by Emily Greene (as seen in Bulky hats)
Sourcebook Balaclava by Norah Gaughan (as seen in Hoods)
Rille by Olga Buraya-Kefelian (as seen in Every stitch of the Tov collection)
Earlyrising by Annie Rowden (as seen in For the hat list)
Halus by Jared Flood (as seen in Mad hatting)
Buck’s Hat by Thea Colman (as seen in Mad hatting)

Favorite New Favorites of 2016

MITTENS
top: Ossify Mitts by Whitney Hayward (as seen in Mitten mania cont.)
bottom: Handspun Dreams Mitten by Hannah Fettig (as seen in Mitten mania cont.)

Those are my picks — and in this year’s case I actually already have yarn and plans for several of them! (More on that to come.) What were your favorite patterns of 2016?

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PREVIOUSLY in New Favorites: Bulky hats

Favorite New Favorites of 2015

Favorite New Favorites of 2015 — best knitting patterns

Just about every week of every year, I post about the knitting patterns that are occupying my thoughts — whether they’re new or just newly appealing to me — under the heading of New Favorites. Some are content to be admired for just that moment, while others bully their way right into my queue. Interestingly, this year not a single New Favorites pick actually made it onto my needles (Not yet, anyway. I still have projects in my queue from last year’s and the year before’s.) Oh no, wait: I did cast on Linda — I just didn’t get very far because I need to switch yarns. Given that it’s the one I cast on and sketched into my Fashionary queue, and that I’ve mentioned it on the blog at least 92 times this year, that must have been the absolute most magnetic pattern for me this year! I’m still dying to try my hand at mosaic knitting, and this is still my favorite colorwork pattern of the year. But what follows are the patterns I’d most like to not lose track of as more and more new ones distract us from that which we already loved:

PATTERN OF THE YEAR

Although I give myself a 1% chance of ever actually knitting them, I think Dianna Walla’s Aspen socks/legwarmers, pictured up top, is the best pattern of the year, so I wanted to mention that. It’s inspired by historical garments and yet perfectly new and original, and just completely enticing and memorable. (It’s from the Farm to Needle book that, disclosure, I also have a pattern in.) If you haven’t seen Dianna’s blog post about the inspiration behind the pattern, take a minute to give it a read.
(as seen in From Farm to Needle)

SWEATER OF THE YEAR

Favorite New Favorites of 2015 — best knitting patterns

For me, Norah Gaughan’s Marshal is the sweater of the year, despite the fact that the neck treatment doesn’t quite work somehow. If (when) I were to knit it, I think I might make it into more of a bomber jacket — with a crewneck and curved neckband. That, or keep the V-neck and just leave off the neck flap, which looks fantastic from the back but which I love less from the front. Regardless, I’m completely crazy about the pocket design, texture and placement, and the gauge shift from the body to the pockets — really fantastic use of simple detail to elevate a design.
(as seen in The chevrons of BT Winter ’15)

YOKE SWEATERS

Favorite New Favorites of 2015 — best knitting patterns

Next year will absolutely be the year I knit myself a colorwork yoke sweater. Perhaps one of these three—
top: Stopover by Mary Jane Mucklestone, as knitted by Kathy Cadigan (as seen in Dark yoke sweaters)
bottom left: Lighthouse Pullover by Carrie Bostick Hoge (as seen in Dark yoke sweaters)
bottom right: Skaftafell by Beatrice Perron Dahlen (as seen in Winter blues)

PULLOVERS

Favorite New Favorites of 2015 — best knitting patterns

The rest of the sweaters I’m keeping on the don’t-forget list are good, hardworking wardrobe basics that also look reasonably interesting to knit—
top left: Grille by Bonnie Sennott (as seen in Grille)
top right: Trace by Shellie Anderson (as seen in Trace)
bottom left: Sanford by Julie Hoover (as seen in The chevrons of BT Winter ’15)
bottom right: Butte by Pam Allen (as seen in Big ol’ cozy pullovers)

ACCESSORIES

Favorite New Favorites of 2015 — best knitting patterns

left: Lambing Mitts by Veronika Jobe (as seen in Foldover mitts) (free pattern)
middle: Bonnie Banks Shawl by Beatrice Perron Dahlen (as seen in Fair-weather friends)
right: Abyss by Wool and the Gang (as seen in the WATG x Raeburn beanies)
right: Crag by Jared Flood (as seen in The hats of BT Men Vol 2)

What were your favorite patterns this year? Cast-on or otherwise!

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PREVIOUSLY in New Favorites: Winter blues

Favorite New Favorites

My favorite New Favorites of 2014

Nearly every week there’s something I’m obsessing over and/or itching to cast on, as chronicled in New Favorites. Not necessarily new patterns, just new fixations. But in reality, I can only hope to knit a mere fraction of them. Some obsessions linger longer than others, but I can honestly say that 8/9 of last year’s Favorite New Favorites are still lodged in the front of my brain, begging for needle time. (The ninth one, Trillium, I actually knitted!) Here are the most tenacious patterns to have appeared in New Favorites in 2014:

SWEATERS
top left: Uniform Cardigan by Carrie Bostick Hoge (as seen in Carrie’s Uniform and, more recently, Quicker sweaters)
top right: Gillam by Kate Gagnon Osborn (as seen in From the Knightsbridge collection)
bottom left: Riviera by Wool and the Gang (as seen in WATG cotton toppers)
bottom right: Siberia Anorak by Helga Isager, minus the funnel neck (as seen in Helga does it again)

HATS
Too many to mention. I’m seriously thinking of doing a hat-per-month thing in 2015.

My favorite New Favorites of 2014

SOCKS
left: Inglenook by Adrian Bizilia (as seen in House socks redux)
right: School Girl by Deneise Kemp (as seen in Cabinfour’s collected socks)

My favorite New Favorites of 2014

WRAPS
top left: Joelle’s Diagonal Pinstripe Scarf by Joelle Hoverson (as seen in Ebony and ivory)
top right: Halligarth by Gudrun Johnston (as seen in The Wool People wraps)
bottom left: Palmyre by Nadia Crétin-Léchenne (as seen in Palmyre)
bottom right: Nimbus by Dawn Catanzaro (as seen in The Wool People wraps)

My favorite New Favorites of 2014

GLOVES
left: Fure by Olga Buraya-Kefelian (as seen in From the Woolfolk collection)
right: Hand Warmers for Beginners by Purl Soho (as seen in Garter bliss)

I suppose my very favorite New Favorites are the ones I actually cast on this year, some of which I even finished! As you’ll see in my comparatively paltry knitting year in review, coming up.

What were your favorite patterns this year?

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2013: My favorite New Favorites and your favorite posts

Best of New Favorites: Sweater patterns

You know there has to be some reflection and projection here as the calendar flips over from 2013 to ’14, starting with the patterns that caught my attention over the course of the year. Pretty much every week, under the heading of New Favorites, I post about the patterns that I not only like or admire but that make my fingers twitch with the urge to cast on — whether it’s great new releases, a designer who’s caught my eye, or some gap in my wardrobe or skill set I’m thinking about filling. Clearly I’m fickle, and some are more passing fancies than others. But some of these picks burrow into my brain and simply demand to be knitted. Here are the ones I’m still fixated on — I hope to cast on at least some of them in 2014.

SWEATERS
top left: Stonecutter pullover by Michele Wang (Pattern of the Year, as far as I’m concerned)
top right: Dwell cardigan by Martin Storey
bottom left: Trillium cardigan by Michele Wang
bottom right: Rook pullover by Kyoko Nakayoshi

Best of New Favorites: Fingerless gloves

FINGERLESS GLOVES
Antiquity mitts by Alicia Plummer

Best of New Favorites: Scarf/shawl patterns

WRAPS
left: Flying Squirrel stole by Michiyo
right: Imposter’s Shawl by Amber Corcoran

Best of New Favorites: Sock patterns

SOCKS
left: Climb socks by Jane Richmond
right: Cream socks by cabinfour

The hats I am most persistently obsessed with were both mentioned on the blog, but neither of them in New Favorites. They are the Bray Cap by Jared Flood and Gwyneth by Leah McGlone.

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And speaking of favorites, here are the ten posts that attracted the most views over the course of 2013:

1. How to improvise a top-down sweater
2. Holiday knitting cheat sheet: A hat for every head
3. Best summer sweater knitting patterns
4. Double Basketweave Cowl (free pattern)
5. New Favorites: Simply Great Cowls
6. Scarves to start now
7. Wabi Mitts (free pattern)
8. Fast, easy and warm: Jumbo Stitch Cowls collection (free patterns)
9. Knitter’s Delight: Beautifully textured hats
10. Holiday knitting cheat sheet: Cowls all around

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