Happy New Year, everyone! It’s 2026 in the real world and 1968 at the Stitchcraft Sixties.

Looking ahead, 1968 is the year that Stitchcraft finally starts to get into the “Swinging Sixties” vibe, with miniskirts, oversized hats, bright patterns and lots of dresses. The January issue doesn’t quite get there yet, though. The cover cardigan has a similar construction and fit to similar garments from 1966 or 1967: long and loose-fitting, with deep raglan sleeves and a collar. The stitch pattern looks like small horseshoe cables, but is made entirely with knit, purl and slip stitches!

Other women’s garments include a bright pink-and-purple crocheted pullover with a similar bulky, V-necked shape. The model has a bizarre January tan that can only come from a bottle. There’s also a colourwork design to use on either a sleeveless top or a dress, and a short, zippered cabled jacket.

Cable, mock-cable, and bobble patterns are trending, and warm reds and golds pair with bold pink and winterly white. Warm accessories include a a chic little bed-jacket with ill-placed (or strategically designed to draw the attention of one’s bed partner?) bows. You can make a pair of warm cabled gloves, or bed socks with ribbon bows to match the bed-jacket.

Two of the women’s garments stand out. The cape made a brief fashion appearance in the later 1960s, and Stitchcraft‘s version pairs it with a skirt in an ensemble for larger sizes (to fit 38/40/42 inch bust). There is even an adorable version for a little girl, with one of the cutest photos ever. She looks like Little Red Riding Hood going out to see her grandmother on New Year’s Day, but with cold legs. At least she’s wearing tights, for once! The adult version is made in an intriguing “Purple Dusk” shade of Bracken Double Knitting tweed, the children’s version in the same wool, but in two shades of pink: Gentian and Raspberry. Little Pink Riding Hood, as it were (and without the hood.) The caption to the cape photos is “The Cape makes sense”. I disagree — capes are bulky and hard to layer. It does have a certain flair, though.

Speaking of bulky and hard to layer, another late 60’s flash-in-the-pan trend was extremely bulky garments made by holding 4 or more strands of bulky wool together. Patons called this “Super-Sonic” and included a pattern for a cabled and moss-stitch dress that can be made in 8 hours at a tension of almost 1 stitch/inch using 4 strands of bulky “Big Ben” wool on 00 needles — that’s 9mm or a US 13. The accompanying text says, “The thick fabric is firm and elastic and 2 inches at least, are deducted from the length of a dress, to allow for settlement.” That’s a nice way of putting it! I imagine it sags immediately. The colours are a wild mix of Light Navy, Sunglint (yellow), French Mustard, and Jade.

There are two designs for men, both featuring thick wool, warm gold colours, and textured, geometric patterns similar to the ones used in the women’s garments. The zig-zag pattern is made with knit and purl stitches, with twisted stitches on the front side panels, and the textured looks-like-a-mini-cable pattern on the polo-neck pullover is made entirely with knit and purl stitches on a reversed stocking-stitch background. Note the very 1960s dynamic diagonal-line photo poses.

For babies, there’s a thoroughly cute, but also quite practical, zippered romper. Congratulations to the photo team for getting a baby to smile in two different photos! That’s what having warm legs will do for you.

The last garment in the issue is a wonderful set intended for a young teen, made up of a jumper, skirt and matching knee socks. Here we see Stitchcraft finally getting into the swing of things, with a fun, geometric colour motif in primary colours that looks like it was inspired by a Roy Lichtenstein comic-art speech bubble.

With all these great garments, it’s no wonder that the homewares are a little boring, but that’s also the direction Stitchcraft‘s homeware designs will take in the later 1960s. The most interesting design is an “attractive scene for your first attempt at a picture in tapestry.” Then there’s a tapestry design for a cushion or church kneeler, a “key pattern” embroidery design for a cushion or place mats, a cross-stitch design for a cushion or chair-back, and a design in woven embroidery for a cushion or workbag.

Versatility is key (but when in doubt, make a cushion.) Even the Readers Pages offers a design for a cushion, knit in squares from leftover wool.

In the children’s comic, “The Woodland Woolshop”, Samuel Squirrel finds out what happens if you don’t use cushions — he paints a stool and then Eddy Bear, who has come in to replace a hole in his knee, unknowingly sits on it and gets a flower design on the seat of his trousers. May all your mistakes turn out so fortunate.