Skip to main content

AI Crochet Images and Patterns

 The Rise of AI in the Art World What do you think of this image? It's very pretty at first glance, isn't it? Does it make you immediately want to seek out the pattern to make them yourself? You're not alone. I took this image from a random page on Facebook that showed up on my newsfeed. I have no idea who originally made it. It's being shared by pages that appear to be run by bots, as the caption is always the exact same.  So What's the Problem? The problem is these crochet parrots are not real. That is not real crochet. The photo is generated by AI. How can you tell? Firstly, they are too perfect. Creating crochet birds that could sit like that on a perch without falling over would be challenging. The direction of some of the stitches doesn't make sense. If you zoom in, you can see the stitches on the head especially do not look like crochet stitches. The yellow feathers on the left bird's head look like real feathers, which you wouldn't be able to rep...
Post a Comment

How I Design My Crochet Patterns

 How I Design My Crochet Patterns


Want to know how I design my crochet patterns? I'm still relatively new to designing patterns, although I have been crocheting for a good few years. Everyone has different methods for designing, and I'd like to take you through the process that I follow. 

Inspiration and Ideas

I find it hard to describe where I get ideas from, but often an idea will just appear in my brain. I do most of my thinking in the shower and when I'm lying in bed trying to sleep. I always write them down to make sure I remember them for when I am able to start putting them into action. 

My first pattern, Barry the Bat was a whim. I just started making something and it turned into that. I think it was because I had treated a bat at work not too long before. The little guy was quite tired and weak, but when I picked him up to check him over and give him some water, he was so mad and yelled at me. I like bats, I think they are cute, but I know they're often seen as scary or unpleasant. I think I wanted to make them seem cute. 

Starting Off the Design

It's a little bit like writing a story. You might make a plan or sketch out the general idea. I struggle to do this, I am a practical learner so I just have a vague idea of what shape I want and I start crocheting. I tend to use cheaper materials for this first prototype. Like a first draft. I finish it off and look at where I want to improve it and make notes.

I don't just crochet away until the draft is finished. I write down every step in a notebook. I'm a bit old fashioned that way I suppose. I can also make notes of anything I think of as I go. Once I have that plan, I can think about the second draft.

So I start making the second prototype with the changes I added from the first one. It might take a few iterations before I'm happy with the design. There is a degree of trial and error, and that's okay! It's worth the work to make sure the pattern is what you want it to be. 

Prototyping

Next up is making the plushie in the chenille yarn to make sure it still looks good. Chenille yarn is more expensive, although I like to make sure my patterns work well regardless of materials. If I'm happy with it, I'll make a couple more, maybe in different colours and share them online. I like to share every stage of the process with my lovely social media followers. I also appreciate any and all feedback. Here is the finished prototype of my phoenix pattern. 




I make at least two prototypes for UKCA testing if I want to sell finished plushies. This is a legal requirement here in the UK, it involves a lot of testing and paperwork but it is important to ensure your toys are safe for young children. I will talk more about this in the future but if you are UK based or plan to sell plushies in the UK or EU you need to do this testing. You can purchase a pack from the UKCA &CE Marking Handmade Toys Collective to guide you through this process. Their website is here.

Then, the next job is to write up the pattern. I usually make yet another plushie and make sure to take photographs of the process and especially to help with any tricky or crucial parts of the pattern.This is important for making sure your pattern is as easy to follow as possible. I write the pattern up using Canva, it's great for laying it out and making it into a pdf file. I have a template on there I can copy and then fill out, so my patterns all look consistent. 


So that's the first steps of the design process. Next time I'll talk about pattern testing and preparing the pattern for release. So join me next time for that.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Hello! Welcome to the FelisSilvestris Crochet and Craft Blog

 Hello and Welcome! This is a blog to accompany my main website with all my crochet and craft escapades. I hope it'll be interesting for you all to read. So, what can you expect to find on this blog? Crochet tutorials Free Crochet Patterns General updates about new products and upcoming sales Reviews of new products like yarns, hooks etc Other crafty topics I hope you'll join me for all of these. I aim to post at least two or three times weekly, possibly more when there's news to share. Feel free to join in in the comments to chat, ask questions or anything else!  This is quite a short post, but there will be plenty of awesome content to come soon, so keep an eye out. In the meantime, my about page on here will have a few links, so you can find me on social media, visit my Etsy shop and visit the main website.  Happy Crocheting!  Love, Felis Silvestris
Post a Comment
Read more

Crochet Basics Part 2 - Introducing New Stitches

  Crochet Basics Part 2 Hi, welcome back. This is part 2 of my crochet basics series introducing crochet and teaching you how to get started. In the first part we went over the basics of beginning a piece of crochet, the slipknot, the chain stitch, double crochet (single crochet in the US) and how to fasten off at the end. Today we're going to cover a couple of new stitches you can use for different textures. The half-treble and treble crochet stitches are fairly easy to work. These stitches are taller than the double crochet. You'll see what I mean.  Half-Treble Crochet (htr) Half-treble is between double and treble crochet in height. It is worked very similarly to a double crochet, the difference is you wrap the yarn around your hook before pushing it into the next stitch, then you pull the yarn through, pulling up another loop. This leaves three loops on your hook instead of two. You wrap the yarn around the hook again and pull it through all three loops together. That's...
Post a Comment
Read more

Fast Fashion vs Slow Fashion

 Fast Fashion and Making Ethical Choices Let's talk about fast fashion and crochet items that are available for sale. A lot of companies like SHEIN and Temu are selling crochet items for really cheap prices. I saw a crochet top made up for five large granny squares with straps and tassels that definitely look crocheted although it's hard to see clearly. The top is being sold for £7.49, and from the look of it it would take me a good 3-4 hours to make by hand. I'm not the slowest crocheter, nor am I the fastest.  Why is this a problem? Well, even if you ignore material costs, and if we give a generous estimate of 3 hours to make. we're looking at £2.50 per hour, except you have to assume that the company intends to make a profit as well, so it's likely that the person making these items is being paid much less per hour to hand make these items.  As we discussed last week, crochet cannot be replicated by a machine, so if these items are truly crochet, then whoever is ...
Post a Comment
Read more