Using Google Trends to Track Knitting Popularity
Google Trends is basically free market research, and knitting is one of those niches where it actually works well. You type in a term, you see what people are searching over time. That's it. But there's enough to get wrong that I'll lay it out. Go to trends.google.com. In the search box, type something like "knit pattern," "cable knit sweater," "amigurumi," or "loom knitting." Make sure the category is set to "Shopping" if you want purchase intent, or "All categories" if you just want general interest. Set your time range to "Past 12 months" to start, then expand to "Past 5 years" if the data looks flat. One thing most people miss: Google Trends gives you relative search volume, not absolute numbers. So "100" doesn't mean a million searches. It means that keyword was at its peak interest for that region and time. A score of "50" could still be massive in absolute terms — it just means half as much relative interest compared to the peak. This trips up a lot of beginners who see a low number and assume the topic is dying. It might not be. It might just have had an even bigger spike earlier.
Here's a specific problem I ran into last winter. I was comparing "knit hat patterns" against "crochet hat patterns" across the US, and the trends looked almost identical. I thought the data was broken. It wasn't. The issue was that both terms had massive seasonal spikes every October through December, and when both spike at the same time, Google normalizes them against each other and flattens the curves. The workaround was to filter by a single region — I picked "Canada" where knitting search behavior is different enough from the US that the seasonal overlap didn't compress the data as much. Then I pulled the raw data file and did a simple subtraction in a spreadsheet to see the actual difference in search volume month by month. Took about ten minutes and gave me the answer I needed. Another thing nobody tells you: the "Related queries" section at the bottom is where the real gold is. When you pull up a trending knitting term, scroll down to "Rising" queries, not "Top." The "Top" queries are the ones everyone already knows. "Rising" shows you terms that are spiking — often 5000%+ — and those are your early signals. If "cable knit blanket pattern" suddenly appears in rising queries in early September, that's a three-month lead before peak interest hits. I use this to plan content calendars and product listings.
The Workflow I Actually Use
Here's the step-by-step process I go through when I need to figure out what's trending in knitting: Step one: Start broad. Enter "knitting" as your query with no region restriction and "Worldwide" as the location. This gives you a baseline. Note the overall shape of the trend line. Is it steady? Spiky? Declining? Step two: Drill into sub-niches. Now run queries for specific terms: "knitting patterns free," "knitting for beginners," "merino wool yarn," "knitting needles size," "knitting socks patterns." Run each one individually. Set the time range to "Past 90 days" to catch current momentum, then switch to "Past 12 months" for seasonality context.
Get the Full Details
Step three: Compare side by side. Use the comparison feature — you can add up to five terms and see them plotted together. I usually compare 2-3 at a time because five is hard to read on screen. Look for divergences. If "knitting patterns free" is trending up while "knitting for beginners" is flat, that tells you something about who's searching and why. Step four: Export the data. Click the download button in the top right. It gives you a CSV. I usually bring it into a spreadsheet and calculate month-over-month changes. Google Trends doesn't show percentages, so you do the math yourself. Step five: Cross-reference with YouTube and Pinterest. Google Trends won't tell you what a visual hobby like knitting is doing on other platforms. A trend might be flat on Google but exploding on Pinterest because that's where craft people actually look for patterns. I check both before making any decisions.
Popular Knitting On Google Trends: What the Data Actually Shows Right Now
As of the last time I pulled this data, here's what stands out. "Sustainable yarn" and "organic cotton yarn" have been climbing steadily for about eighteen months. Not a spike — a slow, consistent rise. That's a longer-term signal worth paying attention to. "Fast knit" and "quick knitting projects" also show recurring spikes every January and September, which tracks with new-year resolution energy and back-to-routine thinking. "Amigurumi" is interesting because it's not really knitting — it's crochet. But the search overlap between "amigurumi" and "knitting patterns" is significant enough that if you're targeting the knitting audience, you should be aware of it. I've seen competitors who ignored this overlap miss a whole segment of buyers who search for one term but would happily buy from a knitting-focused shop. The biggest pitfall I see people make is relying on Google Trends alone. It's a discovery tool, not a validation tool. Just because a term is trending doesn't mean it's profitable. You need to check competition, commercial intent, and whether people are actually spending money on it. Google Trends won't tell you any of that.
Also, regional differences matter a lot in knitting. "Knitting patterns" searches in the UK are very different from the US — they search for "knitting patterns" more than "free knitting patterns," and seasonal timing is off by a few months because of weather. If you're running ads or publishing content for a specific region, always filter by that region before drawing conclusions. The data file is free to download and you don't need an account. Just click the three dots in the top right corner of any trends page and select "Download as CSV." That's the only way to get the raw numbers for deeper analysis. The interface itself is limited — you can't do advanced filtering or set custom date ranges shorter than a month — so exporting is essential if you want to do real work with it.
