The first piece of good news is that AI generated crochet patterns are, in fact, some of the worst you will ever find on the internet. Believe me, I’ve experimented with AI to generate some crochet flower patterns,
which you can find here if you’d like to try crocheting them. These patterns have all passed my very strict designer’s eye and do actually produce something that resembles a flower. However, getting to this point involved sifting through many horrendously designed crochet flower patterns that didn’t make the cut, no matter how many times I tried to inform AI that they didn’t make any sense. Of course, AI would apologise profusely every time but still make the same mistakes. I think my job is safe.
One issue though that continues to infuriate me is AI generated crochet images on social media. The problem is that so many people believe these images to be real. For me, I can easily spot the difference between an AI generated image and a real one, but as time goes on, it may become increasingly difficult to distinguish between them, no matter how many times social media giants request that people label such images as fake.
You can’t blame people for being in awe of these fake crochet masterpieces, they look incredible! It would be amazing if people were actually crocheting some of these giant animals or extravagant garments that wouldn’t look out of place on a catwalk, but they simply do not exist. No one is designing or crocheting these things. If you look carefully, you can spot the fakery such as extra digits on people’s hands, elbows pointing in the wrong direction, or crochet stitches that just don’t look achievable if you really know your stuff.
Of course, me being me, even though I’m mildly perturbed by such things, there’s always a part of me as a crochet designer that wonders if it would actually be possible to recreate some of these masterpieces in real life. I may not have the patience for a huge crocheted tiger, but a flower is quick and simple, right? So, I’ve decided to set a challenge for both AI and myself. Please note, I would never do this with an actual designer’s pattern because I have far too many ideas of my own and it just wouldn’t feel right to me, but I don’t think AI will be too bothered as it repeatedly tells me it doesn’t have any emotions. So sad…
So, I asked AI to generate an image, not a pattern this time, of a crochet flower, and this is what it came up with. There was no prompt other than "crochet flower." I have to say, its minimalistic choice of colours was a bit disappointing for a flower, but let's go with it.
Immediately, you can tell this looks fake. The fluffiness around the petals and the way the stitches sit just isn’t quite right. It looks like a bad photo-shopped image from the 90s. However, you can also see why it looks so real. It genuinely looks crocheted, and if you didn’t know much about crochet, you could easily be fooled into thinking this flower was actually crocheted.
So can this flower become a real pattern?
I think so yes. I feel I can recreate the centre. It looks to have about 14 stitches that curve over and it does have 7 petals, which mathematically adds up, but the petals look more challenging. As there are seven petals this will require a fairly thin yarn to fit them all in, but they look too perfect, too flat. The outside stitch definition doesn't match what's happening on the inside of the petal so I can't figure out what stitches have been used, even though they look crocheted. Of course I can't because it's fake, but what I can see is that the stitches run down the middle of the petal rather than along the edge. This means I’ll need to find a way to crochet the petals in one go without splitting them into half-petals for separate rounds because these look too clean for that approach, but I think I have an idea. I’m going to use foundation stitches instead. I could perhaps use Tunisian crochet as well, it does have that appearance, but I will try this first.
If you’re not familiar with foundation stitches, they allow you to create a chain row with a single or double crochet all in one process. You can watch my video tutorial on this technique here.
So, for each petal, I used foundation half double crochets and foundation double crochets to form one side of the petal, then worked into these foundation chains again to create the other side, all in one session. This is the result I came up with, and I even adhered to the monochrome colour scheme.
I have matched the centre and I have matched the stitch definition around the edge of the petal. I have also matched the 5 stitches running down the middle of each petal, but as you can see, the stitch definition inside the petal is very different. This is because it's real and we're creating real stitches. The image is also much clearer.
Flower Pattern
Materials
- DK / Light worsted weight yarn (yarn weight 3)
- 3.5mm crochet hook
- Yarn needle & scissors
This pattern is in US terminology.
ch = chain
st(s) = stitch(es)
sl st = slip stitch
hdc = half double crochet (htr in UK terms)
dc = double crochet (tr in UK terms)
Round 1
Ch4, sl st in first ch to form a loop, crochet 10dc into centre of loop, sl st in first dc to join - (10)
You can also use a magic ring.
Round 2
Ch1 (
don't count as st here or throughout), crochet 14dc over the top of your previous dcs into the same 4ch loop, sl st in first dc - (14)
Hide any excess fabric inside.
Round 3
Ch1, sc2tog until end, sl st in first decrease - (7)
Round 4
*Starting in the same st as your previous sl st, crochet 1hdc and 4dc foundation sts, 5dc in same foundation ch as previous dc, 1dc in next 3 foundation chs, 1hdc in last foundation ch, sl st in same st as previous sl st, sl st in next st* repeat from * to * until you have 7 petals. Fasten off and tie in all ends.
See video below for visual help on crocheting the petals.
So how did I do? Let me know your thoughts on AI crochet in the comments below and if you feel I managed to recreate AI's fake crochet flower.
I hope you enjoyed!
- Laura