AI's Invasion of Knitting and Crochet

AI has been around for a minute. And yes, we’ve had wild knitting related images making the rounds on the internet for probably a year now – think the super knitter granny type imagery. But now AI is fully invading, creating more and more images masqurading as attainable patterns. My first experience in fiber arts was with the viral crochet heart pattern. If you aren’t familiar with this yet, you’re lucky. You can learn more about it here. I thought knitting was safe for the time being. But wow was I wrong. Now you have profiles like “Best of Knitting” or “My Hobby Knitting” popping up with terrible AI images all over them. Let’s dig into what might be going on behind AI’s Invasion of Knitting and Crochet.

What Exactly Is Happening?

As you scroll through Facebook, and now Instagram too it seems, you might come across a really cute project. At first glance it looks real enough. There’s stitch definition. Generally the stitches seem to be actually knitted or crocheted. But there is a fuzzy aura about the photo.

And there are no shadows. These are the good ones. Then you’ll start to see more comical ones that are totally knitted projects on crochet pages, knitting needles that have no tips, the cable part of a circular needle just sitting there not connected to anything.

The text will generally be something like “so easy I made 50 in one day!”. And it all sounds really intriguing. Head down to the comments and it’s like everyone is clamoring for the pattern. In the viral crochet heart one, it has been about a week or two and no one seems to have been able to 100% create the pattern.

There are designs that have come close but I haven’t tested their claims. Others claim to be the pattern but are nothing close. Other projects are just so far from being able to be achieved its kind of wild.

Here’s a great option if you’d like to crochet hearts.

What’s the Harm if there’s a bit of an AI invasion into knitting and crochet?

At first glance, there is no harm. It’s a simple pattern that has brought people together to talk about these fiber arts right? But we didn’t need it. We’re already here engaging, and sharing, and collaborating. Then it starts to get annoying. Once you engage with one of these accounts, you start to get more and more. It started on Facebook, and now it’s happening on Instagram. Oh and these are creeping into Pinterest now as well.

Waste of Time

It wastes people’s time. You might spend 30 minutes of your day trying to find these patterns. And that’s frustrating. Especially when you end up with no pattern and still really wish you could make that project.

It creates noise.

These projects are a distraction from other issues, designers, and causes. The timing is strange when you think about the fact that these popped up right when everyone in the knitting and crochet communities were talking about the Break the Ice hats and fiber art as a form of protest. It’s also taking potential traffic away from actual people who have made patterns that you could be making -free or paid.

I mean here we are, talking about this rather than me finishing up my next pattern and sharing it with you.

Environmental:

There is a huge toll that AI is exacting on the earth. Technology corridors are ruing parts of West Virginia. The resources being consumed to generate these issues is problematic, and then the pollution being put off is another problem itself.

Why Are People Doing It?

I hate to say that some of our fellow fiber friends are easy targets, but we are. Generally we are hobbies with older and less social savvy populations. The majority of the people engaging with these accounts have no idea that these images are fake and for the intention of fooling them. Heck, I’m a millenial, worked for a cyber security training company, and still had to take a second look at these. Yes, I went down the rabbit hole when I first saw the hearts and was like I’d really like to try that! I hate to admit that but I will for the sake of this post and to illuminate just how tempting these are.

Monetization

At first, I thought it was to gain followers and attention. But then the more I started to think about the reasons behind it, the frequency of the posts, and the rapid amount of comments, it starts to smack of a money grab. If it was to gain followers or traction in the communities, you’d follow the posts up with a remotely similar or achievable pattern. There’s a fair chance that you would also engage with followers so that you don’t lose them once you’ve grabbed their attention.

Spam

My feed is usually full of knitting, crochet, puppies, and a few charity or activism accounts. Yesterday I logged onto Facebook and in the stories was a pretty racy photo of a woman. It also looked like AI. When I looked at the account name, it was related to knitting. I’m not sure that these accounts aren’t targeting hobbies, hooking people’s interest, and then feeding them spam. Whatever the goal or purpose is here, it’s fully annoying.

What Can We Do About AI’s Invasion Into Knitting and Crochet

We’re not doomed to suffer these AI posts. You can take steps to cut down on the impact that they have in your social feeds, while also making a difference for other people too.