It's been interesting seeing the new season's yarns and patterns coming out and how they mesh with mainstream fashion. Florals look like being the big thing in the magazine and shops over the forthcoming spring/summer, with star patterns not far behind. There are a lot of light, floaty fabrics and lingerie touches. (Vogue has an excellent breakdown of the Spring/Summer trends, as you'd expect.)

Louisa Harding's new book, Dauphine, is full of dreamy, romantic knits that would go well with a chiffon skirt or add gentleness to everyday jeans, and Rowan's A Kidsilk Dream with its soft, sheer jumpers and delicate wraps, is bang on trend. There are more beautiful Kidsilk Haze designs in the new Rowan magazine (43). (Look out for a superb Louisa Harding cardi in issue 39 of Simply Knitting, out on the 28th Feb: one of the team liked it so much, she's already bought the yarn to make one for herself.)

For a quicker knit, Knitty.com has a superb lace scarf pattern called Branching Out - we've made one from Kidsilk Night and it's beautiful! It's a great introduction to lace knitting, and has the light daintiness that will be big news this spring.

Faded colours are big news: cream, beige, soft pink and muted green. The pastel tones and new pure white version of Sirdar Firefly knit up into lovely lacy tops and scarves. Sirdar Calico's pretty pastel shades are perfect, as are the delicate patterns released to support it. For the environmentally-conscious follower of fashion, Rowan Purelife also comes in a number of lovely soft shades, and is organic and produced without exploiting workers in developing countries.

The beauty of knitting is that you can make whatever you like. If you want to wear black when the world is wearing beige, or fashion says floaty and you prefer chunky, you can go ahead and do it. If you like to be fashionable, though, yarn companies have brought out some gorgeous yarns and patterns to help you do it.