I just blooming love it when the weather turns colder and we need to wear a wee bit more wool. And you know what else I love? Texture! Whether it is a wool with a beautiful character or a design with a beautifully structured, or textured appearance, ooh! they want to jump right on my needles.

Here are a few recent pattern releases that just made me want to reach out and savour their beautiful textures.

Clare Devine collaborated with The Knitting Goddess, for Joy’s popular yarn and pattern club this year. These designs are being released as single patterns and when Polka popped up in my Ravelry pattern recommendations looked a bit like the emoji with the hearts for eyes!

© Clare Devine

I love the combo of stocking stitch and reverse stocking stitch – and with Joy’s beautifully dyed British wool and nylon that beautiful texture is further enhanced. Just lovely. And these socks are great if you have a high instep, so another reason for me to cast on soon! Polka cost £4.75

And speaking of Joy, she has recently released Crochet the Rainbow. I’ve talked before of my love of the texture of crochet (though my skills are still not quite passed granny square) and Joy has 4 neck accessories in this book, which feature glorious texture and colour combinations and all use The Knitting Goddess colour wheel sets. Look at this wonderful crochet linen stitch cowl.

© Joy McMillan

© Maddie Harvey

Maddie Harvey’s recent hat design, a slice of honey, has a delicious cabled section that looks really squishable and so warm. Maddie’s samples have been knit in three British aran wools from Ginger Twist Studio, Yarns from the Plain and also the new WYS Croft Shetland Yarn. I particularly love how it looks in the Croft; the speckled yarn should kinda detract from the cable detail, but actually it makes it even more textured. The honeycomb cable detail is really pretty and I love the reverse stocking stitch. Slice of Honey costs £4.20.

© Blacker Yarns

Blacker Yarns have relaunched some of their patterns and launched a whole new series of patterns for their birthday yarn, Brushwork. There is a lot of texture love in these designs but oh my! Sonja Bargielowska’s Op-Art shawl makes my hands ache to knit. Look at all that garter and old shale! A really contemporary turn on the hap, but keeping those traditional stitches. This might be my project to make for EYF! Op-Art is free via Ravelry

© Purl Soho

Purl Soho are always releasing the most cast-onable designs, aren’t they? Thorn Stitch Cowl is no exception. Knit in light worsted yarn, I think this double wrap cowl will be a total winter wardrobe staple, and looks beautiful. The allover pattern is an 8 stitch repeat. which will be really easy to memorise – a great netflix (or similar) knitting project. Thorn Stitch Cowl takes around 320g of light worsted – I think Blacker Lyonesse would be a stunning yarn for this cowl – it may be a summeryier (making up words now!) wool, but I think it would be lustrous and pick out that texture incredibly. This cowl pattern is free from Ravelry/Purl Soho.

What are your favourite textured stitches and designs?