The Stock(inette Market): May 6th-19th

Hello all! An interesting couple of weeks in the knitting world! We had some major industry publications: the continued presence of the Interweave Knits Summer 2013 preview I mentioned in the last edition; the 5th collection of Wool People, Brooklyn Tweed's guest designer series; Hannah Fettig and Quince & Co.'s collaboration on a Sparrow collection, Knitbot Linen; the debut of Melissa Wehrle's new book, Metropolitan Knits; and the preview for Knitscene's annual Accessories issue.  In addition, there were several notable trends caused by independent designers or searches.  Colorwork mittens had a continued presence through the first week due to Drunk Girl Design's subversive patterns (warning: strong language behind the link); Marisa Hernandez's shawls had a spike midway through the fortnight due to a Mother's Day promotion; and a variety of pineapple crochet patterns made an unexpected appearance on the morning of May 14th. Let's see what effect all of this activity had!

 

One clear trend from all of the above publications was the presence of many, many neck accessories.  Of the 16 items in Wool People 5, 9 were shawls or scarves, and Knitscene Accessories had 10 out of the 33 patterns in its pages.  Add to that a continued organic interest in them and the well-timed promotion from Marisa Hernandez, and neck accessories dominated with 55% of the market.  Cardigans also did well, as they were well represented in Interweave Knits and Knitbot Linen, and pullovers had a strong showing in Interweave.  Vests also made a comeback this fortnight, due to both organic presence and some popular examples from Interweave and Knitbot Linen.  Of note is the fact that hats, kids' garments, and toys fell off the list this week; the former was present in Knitbot Linen and Knitscene, but otherwise didn't make a huge impact, and the latter two were present in self-publications but not in great numbers.

 

Though neck accessories were present in large numbers, there wasn't a huge spike or uptick in their numbers over the weeks.  There was a small spike on May 7th when Wool People 5 debuted, then a larger one on May 9th that combined organic results and the continued presence of Wool People 5, and again another over Mother's Day weekend during Marisa Hernandez's promotion, but they remained otherwise fairly steady.  Pullovers started the session strong due to their heavy presence in Interweave, and cardigans rose in the end due to Knitbot Linen and Melissa Wehrle's Metropolitan Knits.  All others remained relatively steady, with a slight organic peak in cowls over the Mother's Day weekend and a combination organic and Interweave-based spike in vests around the 15th.

This is the first time we've seen a third figure really come into play on the yarn front to rival solids and semi-solids.  It's no surprise that tweed yarns would spike strongly with the release of Wool People 5, but what's also interesting is that other patterns featuring tweed or heathered yarns gained prominence around that same time as well, such as Jon, the Market Shawl, and the Salt and Pepper Cowl.  However, after about a week, things settled back down to normal, with solids and semi-solids again trading for prominence.  Both had strong presences in Interweave and Knitscene, with semi-solids leading slightly.  Solids rose a bit more in the first half of the second week due to Knitbot Linen, as well.  There were also some interesting spikes in 2-color projects throughout the weeks, both organically and due to industry publications.

Modeled garments started off the session strong, with the highest number on record (39/48) coming on May 9th, due to Wool People 5 and Interweave Knits.  However, this dropped off sharply as the period went on, with only a small spike for Knitbot Linen and Interweave.  Pictures with the item shown flat spiked organically over the 14th and 15th, and there was a small dressform spike on the 12th that matches Marisa Hernandez's promotion, as she shoots most of her shawls on a dressform.

Fabric type continues relatively steady, with almost no change in the continued dominance of lace.  There was an organic spike in stockinette on May 10th, and various small spikes of stockinette, texture, and colorwork throughout the remainder.  Cables started strong with a few garments in Wool People 5 utilizing them, but then dropped off throughout the rest of the weeks.  

 Color was again incredibly variable; blue started the weeks strong with a large presence in Interweave and a few popular garments in Wool People 5, and then spiked at the end of the session both organically and with Knitbot Linen.  Red climbed throughout, with a sharp organic spike between the 14th and 16th.  Grey spiked with Marisa Hernandez's promotion, as many of her shawls present were knit in that color, and green, orange, and white also climbed throughout the weeks.  Black, purple, yellow, and brown fell slightly. 

A very interesting couple of weeks, in all; industry publications brought many neck accessories and sweaters to the table, but these were also shored up by organic results.  We saw a continued dominance of lace, modeled garments, and blue and grey, with red rising again.  What do you think the next couple weeks will bring?

The Stock(inette) Market: April 22nd-May 5th

Hello all! The Stock(inette) Market is coming to you live from brand new headquarters--I signed on the dotted line and bought a condo at the end of April! I wanted to tell you this because a) it's super exciting and b) it explains why there are fewer data points than usual this time around.  Between packing, moving, and not having internet for the first couple days, there were a few missed data collection dates in there.  But! It was a very interesting two weeks regardless.  This has been the first time in a while when there weren't large numbers of publications coming out during the weeks; between April 22nd and 29th, no major multi-pattern publications made their way onto the front page.  Over the rest of the dates, there were a few notable groupings, but single publications didn't dominate as they have done in the past.  This gives an interesting and organic approach to the data; individual self-published patterns or small collections could come to the fore, or single patterns from industry publications could shine.  Of note this time was Kyoko Nakayoshi's Fresh Inspiration collection, Cookie A's Jazz Collection, the Quince & Co. Socks book one, and the start of the preview for Interweave Knit's Summer 2013 issue.  Let's take a look at how these and other patterns affected the data!

 

Neck accessories retained 46% of the market, the same percentage as last time.  Cardigans and pullovers dropped a small amount, but homegoods, cowls, and socks gained slightly.  This makes sense in terms of what we saw last time; the most recent issue of Twist Collective had many garments, and there were fewer of those represented this time around.  The patterns from the Interweave Knits Summer preview are slowly trickling onto the first page as we speak; from what I can gather so far, industry pubs tend to favor garments, so we'll see what the beginning of the next edition looks like for those.  Also of note is that vests dropped off the list of those pattern types averaging over 1 hit per data collection (averaging instead just .21); instead, toys took their place this time around with the continued presence of the Happypotamus.  I would have expected vests to do better as we transition into Northern Hemisphere summer, so it'll be something to keep an eye on.

 In garment type, all but neck accessories showed a steady inertia or slight decline; neck accessories continued to climb along the same rate as they followed last time.  This brings neck accessories back up to about where they stood at the end of March, before the major spike and decline following the Romi Hill Easter egg hunt.  It will be interesting to see if they continue to climb over the summer months or drop again soon.

Of note also is that the spikes present in this graph are not the result of single publications.  On April 27th, for example, publication dates for shawls ranged from brand-new Knitty Surprises from the Spring/Summer issue (Brenda Dayne's Now in a Minute) to back to Knitty Spring 2009 (Elizabeth Freeman's Aeolian).  Similarly, April 29th's spike in cardigans had examples with publication dates ranging from earlier that day to November 2012 (Serra by Laura Aylor), to September 2009 (Andrea Rangel's The Dude).  While I don't intend to compensate in my data for things such as the Harlot Effect (i.e. if a famous knitter such as the Yarn Harlot or SouleMama blogs about a pattern, it shoots to the top of the list) or magazine publicity, I do think completely organic results such as these can be  very interesting and telling about the underlying trends.

 

Yarn type remained relatively constant through the weeks, and the interplay between solids and semi-solids was the focus of the data.  It is interesting to note that while the other types do have an effect on the numbers, solids and semi-solids have been almost mirroring each other since I start collecting data.  When one rises, the other drops, and vice versa.  It seems clear from this that while the other types remain present, the use of solids and semi-solids unquestionable fights for the largest part of the market. 

Fabric type also followed the path we've seen previous, with lace continuing strong and gaining slightly over the weeks.  All others dropped a small amount, with a spike in stockinette projects occurring organically in the middle of the period.   Cables saw small a small spike corresponding with the release of Cookie A's Jazz Collection and the Quince & Co. Socks book one, as the popular patterns from each utilized cables in their construction.

 Modeled garments climbed over the two weeks, with rises at the latter end corresponding to the trickle of Interweave Knits patterns and the aforementioned sock collections.  True to previous discussions, modeled garments dropped slightly over the weekends, and there was a slight organic rise in dressforms in the middle of the period. 

Grey and blue were the dominant colors this time, with a few sharp spikes in blues mid-period.  Again, these spikes didn't seem to come as a result of pre-conceived color stories, but as organic results of popularity.  The spike in blue late in the period, however, can most likely be linked to Interweave Knits, which had quite a few blue pieces making the first page.  Also of note is the plateau of red at the beginning of the weeks, before sloping sharply downwards; red has been one of the most volatile colors over the last few months, so I look forward to studying it closer.  Also of interest are the climbs in black and white; these colors continue to be present in single-color garments as well as part of multi-color projects as well. 

All in all, an interesting couple of weeks for "pure" data; a continued interest in neck accessories, lace, and cool colors, with a general rise in other accessories over garments.  Is this a trend for the Northern Hemisphere summer, or something larger? What do you think?

I also wanted to note a couple things on what further I hope to work on over the coming months.  I've had many requests to track number of projects for patterns that have been on HRN, and after trying to formulate a way to do so, I regretfully have to say that it's just not possible.  When things are moving slowly, probably about fifteen patterns will change between 12 hour periods.  When things are volatile, around thirty can change.  That's between roughly fifty and eighty patterns a day to look at, which equates to probably about a thousand over the two week period, at a low estimate.  There's no way to easily glance over them for project data.  I'm working on learning the API key so that perhaps, in future, I can revisit this, but at present, it's just not feasible timewise. 
However, based on recent conversations I've had with a few friends and commenters, I would like to start thinking in broader terms.  When do we know a trend is on its way out or is completely done? What factors do I consistently see that create a presence on the first page? How do industry and self-publications play against each other? I'd like to explore these in further detail, and hope to bring those thoughts to you as their own posts, essays, or articles.  Stay tuned!

The Stock(inette) Market: April 8th-21st

The past two weeks have been big ones for publications in the knitting world, both industry and indie: the beginning of the fortnight brought us Kate Jackson's Knotty Boys 2013 calendar, Hunter Hammersen's Knitter's Curiosity Cabinet, Volume 2, and Rachel Coopey's Coop Knits Socks.  The middle weekend brought us the Spring/Summer issue of Twist Collective, and Joji Locatelli's Hopeful Knits collection has been going strong since the 17th.  Let's see what effect these and others have had on trends over the last two weeks!

Garment type stayed on a relatively even keel throughout the weeks; there was a downturn in neck accessories and a corresponding upturn in cardigans due to Twist Collective; this issue was heavily garment based, with 12 cardigans alone out of the 28 patterns.  In general, however, neck accessories regained a little bit of the ground they lost in the last edition.  Though it just didn't make the graphing cut of averaging 1 per data collection time (averaging .9), men's garments were also strong this time around, due to the afore-mentioned calendar from Kate Jackson.  Several Stephen West projects have stayed on the front page over the last few days, adding to the men's average.  Though men's garments made this strong showing, the top nine garment categories remained the same as in previous editions.

Yarn type also remained relatively constant, with a slight downturn in solid yarns and a slight upturn in semi-solids.  Neither of these seem to be tied to specific publications; there seemed to be an even distribution of both in the publications listed above, so any changes could be completely organic.  There was a small spike in 2-color projects around April 18th; again, this seemed organic, with a lack of cohesion between the projects, indicating that they weren't present due to a blog or forum post on a specific topic.

In addition, fabric type remained relatively steady; there were very slight downturns in lace and stockinette, and slight gains in texture and colorwork, the latter in part due to the small spike in 2-color patterns discussed above.  Lace, texture, and stockinette were well represented in Twist Collective, Hopeful Knits, Knitter's Curiosity Cabinet, and Coop Knits Socks; the latter two also featured complex cables not present in the garment-heavy former two. 


Modeled garments spiked due to Twist Collective, with a corresponding drop in items modeled on dressforms.  Even with this change, the trends varied little over the two week period: there was only a slight climb in modeled garments overall.  This stasis continues to indicate a default preference for modeled garments, but I look forward to exploring it further throughout the year.

There were some interesting changes in the color statistics; blues remain strong but continue a downturn, while reds and greens have recovered from their drop last time and are climbing slowly.  Grey and white also rose.  This is an interesting combination of themes; we have the strong colors of on one hand and the neutrals on another.  I will be interested to see where both of these trends go once the weather finally makes up its mind here in the northern hemisphere.  There were also a few spikes in black throughout the weeks, both as part of two- or three-color garments and individually, and across fabric types.  Black is a tricky color to photograph and capture detail, so it takes a bold designer to work with it.

In conclusion, a calm couple weeks in Lake Woebegon the knitting industry; while there were several publications, both through the industry and independently, the general trends stayed relatively constant.  One thing I did want to share with you all: designer Jill Gutman Schoenfuss joined the Stock(inette) Market discussion on Ravelry with a note that she'd performed similar data collection almost three years ago.  I got her permission to share her average percentage with you, and I thought it would be interesting to compare it with the past two weeks.  One disclaimer--Jill's data is from a single collection point, and therefore the next day could have been wildly different.  But, even if we can't account for averages over a larger collection period, it's still great to see the long-term perspective!

An interesting thing to note is that neck accessories have remained strong for at least three years now, with a clear majority of the patterns on the page and a growth of almost 10%.  Cardigans and pullovers have also gained ground over time, going from a total of 24% to 34%.  Concurrent with what we all know of knitting trends, socks have dropped drastically, from 19% to just 3%.  Interestingly, it seems that fewer pattern categories were represented then, but the minorities (mitts, kid's, and vests then; cowls, socks, kid's, homegoods, hats, and vests now) hold almost the same percentage of the page: 19% then and 20% now.  This indicates that, while the broad focus is on a specific few garment types, the variety in the less prominent types has increased.  Whether this is change in popularity or in production is something I'm hoping to explore further later on.

That's it for this time--what trends have you been watching over the last couple weeks?

The Stock(inette) Market: March 25th-April 7th

An interesting couple weeks in the knitting world this time around--we had promotions, magazine previews, pattern copyright controversy, and a chicken in a dress.  Let's jump right in:

The pattern categories that averaged more than one appearance per collection point did not change from the previous time, indicating that these 9 categories (plus Other) are the core categories for this time of year.  It will be interesting to contrast this to mid-winter, for example, or late summer, to see what changes might occur.  Most garments remained relatively steady during the fortnight, with a slight rise in cardigans and vests due to some strong showings from the Knitscene Summer 2013 preview, which went live at the beginning of the time period, and a few free-for-a-limited-time vest patterns from Elegant Economy Designs at the end.  The most notable shift, however, was right after Easter, when Romi Hill launched her very clever Easter Egg Hunt promotion.  She had hidden 16 pictures of Easter eggs throughout her patterns, and those who found them and reported their location were entered into a drawing.  The upshot of this is that her independent pattern views and clicks skyrocketed, sending her patterns to the front page.  At the peak of this promotion on the evening of March 31st, Romi held 29 of the 48 spots on the first page.  As she is predominantly a lace shawl designer, this greatly affected the make up of the data for this edition.  Shawls did drop once the promotion was over, down past their normal average location, and so I look forward to seeing where they go in the next few weeks.

As you can see from the above percentages, neck accessories continue to dominate on average, with the normal crop of patterns present in addition to Romi's spike.  It's interesting to note that cowls and socks made less of an impact this time around than last, denoting that it's not a general accessory upward shift, but one specific to shawls, scarves, and wraps.

Yarn type remained incredibly steady over the two weeks, with spikes in semi-solids concurrent with Romi's promotion.  This correlation rings true, as many of her patterns are knit in yarn from independent dyers.  There was also a slight rise in two-color projects over the two weeks, but not with any specific impetus, nor outside the realm of the normal fluctuation over a longer period of time; 3+-color projects also dropped slightly.

The spike in lace reflects Romi's promotion midway through the fortnight, but fabrics were mostly constant through the weeks.  There was a slight uptick in cables, but it still averaged lower than in the last edition.  This is concurrent with what I'm seeing in data collection for the upcoming edition--cables seem to be taking a backseat for the spring and summer.

Despite a large downtick in modeled shots during Romi's promotion (many of her patterns are pictured flat or on a dressform), there was a slight rise in modeled patterns over the two weeks, and a slight downturn in those pictured flat. 

Color remains incredibly variable; the strong reds we were seeing previously have gone way down. Orange continues a slow climb, but the other strong colors that rose last time--blues, greens, and yellows--fell.  Purple, white, and grey rose slightly, and other neutrals continued to fall.  I would be curious to tie this to weather conditions in the northern hemisphere; after a somewhat promising week of nice weather, there has been snow and cold in a lot of places, perhaps bringing back some of the more wintery tones. 

That's it for this time--relatively steady numbers all around, with some spikes due to shrewd marketing and industry publications.  In the wings for the next edition--get ready for a spike in men's garments!

The Stock(inette) Market: March 11th-24th

Wow, y'all.  I don't even have words to describe how amazing the reception has been to the First Edition of the Stock(inette) Market--it's been unreal.  Thank you so much to everyone who's commented either here, on Ravelry, or on Twitter; the discussions this has created have been incredible.  I look forward to seeing how it continues!

Before I get started with this fortnight's edition, I wanted to talk a little bit about where I'm hoping to take this next, based on the afore-mentioned conversations.  I'm currently on the waiting list to get a Ravelry API key, which should help me automate this process a little further and therefore enable more categories to be added.  On the list of things I'll tackle (as soon as I figure out what the heck I'm doing with an API key!) is free vs. free for a limited time vs. paid; using the designer's chosen attributes to define the garment type; 'industry' publications vs. self-publications; and a few others.  A big one is also tracking the same categories on "recently published", and seeing what percentage of that day's published patterns actually make it onto the first page.  I'll be incorporating these things over time, but stay tuned--I think they'll be great additions to the current information.

So, without further ado, on to this fortnight's Edition!

There were a few big events in the last couple weeks that affected the data; on March 13th the preview photos for the new issue of Knit.Wear were added to Ravelry.  The items from this issue that made the first page were predominantly sweaters and vests, with a pretty even mix of stockinette, lace, and textured stitches.  This issue also featured a tilt towards solid yarns, which you'll see in the graphs below.  On March 18th, previews for Amy Herzog's new book Knit to Flatter went up on Ravelry; Amy's focus on figure-flattering garments meant that again, the first page skewed to sweaters, with a good blend of stockinette, lace, cables, and texture, and an even distribution of solid and semi-solid yarns.  However, the general trend is still for shawls/scarves/wraps and lace.  Here's the full breakdown:

The types of garments that averaged more than 1 appearance per day rose this fortnight; both kid's garments and vests joined the list from last time.  The pie chart above illustrates the average portion of the first page each garment type receives; shawls/scarves/wraps are up from 40% last time.  This is in line with the general trend of accessories as the more typical projects in the warmer months.

You can see the dips in shawls/scarves/wraps on the 13th and the 18th concurrent with spikes in cardigans and pullovers, but there is otherwise a continual up-tick in neck accessories.  This is a continual steady increase from the last edition as well.  Other garment types showed minor changes only, with sweaters falling slightly despite the big spikes and cowls and socks rising.

Yarn type stayed relatively constant through the two weeks, with some switches between solids and semi-solids as Knit.Wear, predominantly solids, moved out and the general self-publishing focus, mostly semi-solids, came back.  There was a large spike in two-color projects during the 3/22 AM collection, but the items seemed to come from multiple different sources (new patterns, forum threads, and, memorably, a promise involving bacon and Amy Singer's sister) rather than a single impetus or thread. 

Fabric type saw relative consistency over the time period with the exception of lace's gradual rise.  The spike in colorwork on 3/22 reflects the 2-color patterns discussed above, and the cable spike on 3/18 is due to Knit to Flatter.  I think it's interesting to note that book publications have much more of a mix of fabric types, including those such as cables which might not be as seasonally popular.  Magazines and self-publishing, however, can reflect more seasonal changes, focusing on more specific types of fabric and causing down-turns in others (the 3/13 dip in cables is due to the other types of fabric being showcased heavily in Knit.Wear).  I'll be watching this closely in regards to other books when they hit the market.

I added a few other categories to the Model Type discussion: shown flat, shown on a dressform, or a mystery knit-a-long that uses a placeholder image rather than an image of the garment.  There was a slight down-turn in modeled garments over the time period, with spikes for Knit.Wear and Knit to Flatter.  Modeled garments did indeed follow the formula from last time of dipping during the weekend on 3/16-3/17, but not on 3/23-3/24.  Garments shown flat also had a slight rise over the two weeks, with quite a few shawls being displayed this way.

  Color was an interesting one this time around; instead of the calm neutrals we saw last time, there was a distinct rise in blues, greens, oranges, and a continued rise in reds.  Knit.Wear's color story was relatively muted, with neutrals and pale, cool shades well-represented, while Knit to Flatter had representatives of most of the color spectrum in brighter, vivid tones.  However, the most interesting thing for me over the last few days has been the sudden burst of orange--coming from nearly non-existent over the previous few weeks, there have been at least four or five garments in it every time over the last four or so days.  Are these color spikes an indication that the more vivid colors of summer are on their way?

I also wanted to take a little look back over the last month in total to see if there was follow-through in trends from last time to this.  Red and blue both continue to climb steadily, projects with more than one color have made steady upward progress, and shawls continue forward.  Traditional sweaters are dipping, but tanks and vests are climbing with warmer weather in the Northern hemisphere on its way (hopefully).  Where do you see the next two weeks going?

The State of the Stock(inette) Market: February 25th-March 10th

So, as you might have guessed from previous posts, I'm a big old nerd.  Most of my college career was focused on the quantitative analysis of ethnographic, anthropological, and linguistic data (told you I was a nerd), and it was inevitable that this would eventually bleed over into my work in the knitting world.  Special thanks go to my friend Sarah for the final kick in the butt a few weeks ago to get this started; after a conversation in which she described my ambitions as "wanting to be the knitting Nate Silver," I knew I had to pursue my interest further!

For the past couple weeks, I've been working on a project that I hope will prove beneficial and interesting to other knitting designers, people in the industry, and just plain old statistics nerds like myself.  I've always been interested in the numbers of the knitting world, and there's a wealth of raw data available on Ravelry--so I thought, why not combine the two?  The Stock(inette) Market is the result!

My method has been simple: ideally twice a day, ideally 12 hours apart (ideally, because I am human after all), I take a look at the first page of one Ravelry's search algorithms, Hot Right Now.  There are 48 patterns on the first page, representing the patterns that are getting the most attention at that time on Ravelry.  Within those 48 patterns, I've broken down my analysis into five different classifications: Garment Type, Fabric Type, Yarn Type, Color, and whether or not the item is on a model.  After collating all this information every two weeks, I'll present an analysis of where things stand in  knitting design in that timeframe, and how it compares to previous analyses.  With this information, I hope to get a sense of where trends are shifting in the knitting world, thus enabling myself and other designers to best use the resources available to us and further make our way in the industry.  (God, the academic language, it just comes right back, doesn't it?)

I'm definitely interested in as much feedback as possible; are there further analyses you'd like to see? Things you'd change? I'm personally thinking about splitting a few garment categories further down into their component parts (neck accessories is the big one I'd like to split, but that gets into very semantic territory), and am open to further discussion.  I've also taken screenshots of the page each time I've accessed the data, and so would be able to go back and look into things further.  I'm interested in eventually incorporating knit vs. crochet, yarn weight, yardage, date published, price, and a few other factors, but I'm also trying to be realistic about the time commitment! I'll most definitely take into consideration any suggestions, though, and welcome them.

Without further ado, then, here's the first two weeks of The Stock(inette) Market!

Note that this chart is an incomplete view of all the patterns that were on HRN--this represents only the garment types that averaged more than one appearance per data collection event.  Not pictured: toys, men's, kid's, mitts, mittens/gloves, dresses, jewelry, vests, ponchos, or unmentionables.  It's worthwhile to note that there was a spike in vests starting on the 6th and continuing through the 10th, partly due to a number of them in the most recent Knitty and the release of Splitstone.  Also spiking over the last few days were ponchos from various sources, which indicates that there was either a popular forum post or blog post on the topic. (EDIT: dergugelhupf wrote in the comments that there was indeed a forum post in For the Love of Ravelry by someone talking about ponchos with sleeves, or "swonchos" [shudder].  That would definitely explain the spike in ponchos!)

On those garment types that do appear on the graph, neck accessories (scarves, shawls, and wraps) are still incredibly strong, following a trend that's been going for at least three years at this point.  There was a large spike in the last week due to the release of Quince & Co.'s Scarves Etc. 2013, a collection of 17 scarves, shawls, and cowls.   Garments took a bit of a backseat due to this spike and dropped accordingly.  Homegoods, hats, and socks remained relatively steady.

Fabric type is determined by what I feel to be the prevailing motif of the item.  Lace continues strong, a trend that started right about when shawls did.  Textured knits, however, ranging from simple garter stitch to slip stitches and knit-purl combinations, climbed over the weeks due to a strong presence in the Q&C Scarves, Etc. 2013.  Colorwork (defined as anything with more than one color, be it stripes, stranding, intarsia, colorblocking, and so on) rose steadily, but didn't have a huge presence in either Knitty or Q&C.  I'm interested to see where that one goes! Cables and stockinette were steady in the background, with some popular and well-loved patterns (the Featherweight cardigan and Aidez, for example) staying on the front page consistently. 

Yarn type is a pretty interesting illustration that solid and semi-solid (i.e. kettle-dyed) yarns are still standing tall, though there were some big spikes in 2- or 3-color projects throughout the weeks.  There is an almost direct shift between solids and semi-solids when Q&C's Scarves, Etc. met Knitty, which came out a few days later; the semi-solids were definitely very well represented in this issue of Knitty.  Tweed, variegateds, and self-striping yarns remained steady, with longstanding favorites such as Hitchhiker, Storm Mountain, and Wingspan appearing most every day.

 

Color has been one of the most interesting things to track over the last two weeks; as you can see from the graph, it was an incredibly diverse selection every time.  Neutrals made a strong showing, with a spike in grey on the first day and a steady climb in brown and white/off-white over the weeks.  Red also climbed, but wasn't a large portion of either Knitty or Q&C. Alternately, green started off strong, but dropped steadily over the two weeks.  Other colors remained relatively steady, and have me interested to see where these will go in the long term.  Are color trends indeed seasonal?

The last option I explored was whether or not the item was modeled by a person.  Most discussions of how best to photograph your patterns encourage doing so on a person, but approximately 1/5-1/3 of patterns were without a human model.  Quite a number were pictured on a dressform or similar set-up, however, so that might be something I track in the future.  An interesting aside is the dips below the trendline on the weekends; far fewer patterns were modeled during those times.  Something to keep an eye on!

So, to sum up, shawls/scarves/wraps and lace remain strong, with a rise in 2 or more color patterns and texture.  Semi-solids and solids still rule the yarn market, partly thanks to the Quince & Co. Scarves, Etc. 2013 and the most recent Knitty.  Green is down, and reds and neutrals are up.  Where do you think things will go in the next few weeks?

Strake

The second design from Strata and Line I wanted to talk about is Strake, a drop-shouldered dolman pullover in Quince & Co. Lark Kittywake and Lichen.

(all photos copyright Bristol Ivy and Leah B. Thibault)

Strake is easily one of the simplest patterns I've ever written; the shape is tailored and clean, and the stripes and garter edging do all the work for a effortless finished piece.  Ravelry tells me I knit the sample in two weeks! But that ease doesn't stop it from being super wearable--I'm not typically a pullover person, but this sweater gets frequent wear. It was inspired by a shirt owned by my stripe-loving friend Aimee that I covet every time it makes an appearance.  I decided it was high time to make my own!

As with Stripanan, I had the colors and yarn picked out on this very early on.  I've spent a lot of time in the Quince warehouse, and sometimes certain colors just stick with you.  This is the second time I've used either color for a project; Lichen was used in the Tideline Cowl in Puffin, and Kittywake as the main color in Linnae.  I'm pretty certain I'll be using both of them again in the future as well!

Strake is worked in the round from the bottom up, and then split to work back and forth at the underarm.  The sleeves are picked up and knit down from the body.  It utilizes two of my favorite accents, contrast color cast-ons and bind-offs and garter edging.  I'll never tire of those!

Strake is available through Ravelry here, and as part of my four patterns in the Strata and Line collection for a discount with the code "STRATA".  I'll be discontinuing the coupon code once I finish with this blog series, so make sure to grab it quickly!