A pattern designer's thoughts on AI pattern making

I've been challenged to write up a blog post with a critical assessment of an AI-generated pattern from this Thread.

As my kids say, Bet. 

So here's how it starts: 

✨THE VIBE
​These are not your average fingerless mitts. They’re what a Broadway-bound android would wear to a midnight séance. Dramatic cables nod to cathedral spires and digital wiring. Soft, luminous yarns make them sweet enough for a synth-pop ballad. Bonus? They’re reversible and knit in the round for a seamless finish—because we love both sides of every story.

First off, I find this description to be, well, wildly over-promising. When I first read it, I expected some serious Celtic-knot-inspired cabling. But also, REVERSIBLE??? Reversible cables. Huh. Okay. That's a new one. 

Typically, when one boasts a reversible pattern, it's because it looks GOOD on both sides. There is an intentional stitch pattern that works no matter which side is facing. And honestly? Cables are NOT that stitch choice. They just make little dimples. Cute on cheeks, not so much in knitting. (see picture evidence below)

Okay, next. 

🧶YOU WILL NEED:

• Yarn:
  
  • Main Colour (MC): 1 skein of soft, haloed yarn like Drops Air or Surrey alpaca blend (think: moody charcoal or lipstick pink)
    
  • Contrast Colour (CC): A sparkly laceweight held double, like Kremke Stellaris or Fyberspates Gleem (electric blue, neon lilac, or gold)
    
    
• Needles: 3.5mm (US 4) DPNs or circulars for magic loop
  
  
• Notions: Stitch markers, cable needle, tapestry needle
  
  

Gauge: ~22 sts x 30 rows = 4” / 10cm in stockinette, in the round

To be totally honest, I'm not THAT familiar with Drops yarn, so I had to go look it up. (And Chat, it's SURI alpaca. FYI)

Turns out, Drops AIR is an aran/worsted weight yarn. Typically worked on US size 7-9 needles (4.5-5.5 mm). Chat thinks US 4?? 3.5 mm needles? 

Oh, and wait. There is a second strand of sparkly lace. I love a good sparkly yarn, so I'm down with that. However, worsted+lace is going to be nightmare to work on such small needles. 

Typically, one is going to want to use sport or fingering weight yarn on a size 4 needle. It takes 3-4 strands of fingering to make a worsted analog. That gauge is going to be SO tight. And then to work cables in addition to that? Where you are crossing stitches in front of or behind other stitches? Can you say broken or bent needles?? Aching fingers?

I have a fingering weight sweater design (not yet published, but someday it will) and I went to find the gauge for it. It's 24 sts x 32 rows over 4". Using Linen Quill from Purl Soho. 439 yds/100 g. It's a LIGHTWEIGHT yarn. 

So Chat wants fingering weight gauge using worsted yarn. Yikes. 

​Moving on. 

🎭SIZE:One size fits most adult hands
To adjust, increase or decrease by multiples of 6 stitches (cable repeat size)

One size fits most. 

Okay. For mitts, I'm not going to get too worked up about that, but 6 stitches for sizing adjustments is QUITE a lot. Even at the hand-breaking gauge it wants. That's still an inch adjustment.

However, it also lists gauge AND has the pattern. There should be NUMBER measurements here. Inches. Centimeters. The cables, of course, will cinch it in, but there still need to be NUMBERS here. 

🎵STITCHES & TECHNIQUES:

• Knit, purl, k2tog, M1
  
  
• Basic cables (C3F, C3B)
  
  
• Provisional cast-on (optional for seamless cuff join)
  
  
• Magic loop or DPNs
  

I read ahead in the pattern and I'm mystified by this mention of seamless cuff join. The pattern is worked in the round from the bottom up. That's total nonsense. The best part? It doesn't even START with said provisional cast on! 

The rest is fine. I guess. A well-written pattern would offer descriptions of these techniques, but I won't bust Chat's chops too hard for that. 

​Next. The pattern itself. 

🔌PATTERN STRUCTURE:1. CUFF (SHOWGIRL MODE)
With MC and CC held together, cast on 42 sts. Join in the round.
Work 1x1 rib (k1, p1) for 12 rounds
Optional: add a picot edge for drama (YO, k2tog every 6th st in round 1)

2. MAIN BODY (ELECTRIC CATHEDRAL)Set-up for cables:
Round 1: K3, P3 around
Place a marker every 6 sts if you want to keep track of repeats
Begin cable pattern (6-st rep):
Rounds 1–4: K3, P3
Round 5: C3F (sl 1 to cable needle and hold in front, k2, then k1 from cable needle), P3
Repeat Rounds 1–5 five times (or until mitten reaches knuckle)

3. THUMB GUSSET (JUST A GIRL, IN THE WASTELAND)On next round, work 18 sts in pattern, place marker, M1L, K1, M1R (thumb gusset), place marker, work rest in pattern
Continue increasing 1 st each side of thumb marker every other round, 6 times total (13 gusset sts)
Place gusset sts on waste yarn
Continue main body in pattern for 2 more repeats

4. TOP EDGE (SOFT-POP DRAMA)Switch to 1x1 rib for 4 rounds
Bind off loosely (tubular or stretchy bind-off)

​5. THUMB FINISH
Return gusset sts to needles
Pick up 2 sts at the gap (15 total), knit in st st for 6 rounds
Finish with 1x1 rib for 3 rounds, bind off

Here's where I can get a little pickier. 

42 sts. Ummm . . . 

I was commissioned years ago to make A BUNCH of worsted mitts for someone to give as Christmas gifts. They were 40 sts AND had plenty of room for me to add a fleece liner so they were REALLY warm. But at THIS gauge? They'll be 7" around at the wrist, which is snug. And then add cables? They'd fit  my pre-teen children. Probably. 

If you want a Picot edge at the cast on, you list that first. ALSO, the instructions given are for eyelets, not picots. And there are PLENTY of tutorials on how to DO a picot cast on out there, so I won't go into detail about how to do that, but making eyelets ain't it. 

30 rounds of cabling. That's going to be about 4", which feels too long to reach thumb knuckle. Which I assume is what is meant by "until mitten reaches knuckle". (Also, it's a MITT, not a MITTEN.) So the ribbing will start at . . . your forearm? And then the cabling will show up just in time for your hand to be getting . . . wider? 

Not the choices I would make. Or anyone else who wants a thing that will fit. 

2" of increase in width to go around thumb doesn't feel completely unreasonable, so I'll give it that. It gives 1" to finish adding gusset stitches, so okay. I'm unconvinced that the shaping is going to work out with that particular placement, though. I think it's going to end up having a weird shape. The placement of increases would be better further apart, like at matching points on either side of the meaty part of the thumb. 

"Continue main body in pattern for 2 repeats. " So an inch and a half, but also, flat? In the round? Is it just joining the existing stitches? Do more stitches need to be cast on? 

Also, after doing the gusset, we've only worked about halfway up the thumb, so that will be uncomfortable. Especially because, remember, we're using WORSTED weight yarn at a FINGERING weight gauge, so there will be NO stretch at all. It's going to be stiff. And we're still not sure if we're supposed to work flat or rejoin in the round or add more stitches.

Then finishing with 4 rounds of ribbing. We started with 12. Why not mirror? And it probably won't even reach the knuckles. So it'll start at the forearm (which it won't even be able to stretch to accommodate) and then end halfway up the hand?? With a thumbhole too small for the thumb because we just rejoined, omitting those 13 gusset sts, and so it's too short.

And finally, the thumb. Picking up stitches to be 2.5 inches around. With our 1.5" gusset height. Will be snug, all things considered, but the length being just over an inch? Sure, I guess. Feels a bit short though. I'd go longer.

💿EMBELLISHMENTS (OPTIONAL)

• Stitch in lyrics (backwards?) using duplicate stitch
  
  
• Sew on small circuit-patterned beads
  
  
• Add a chain connecting the mittens like mitt clips—cyber vintage
  
  
• Custom tag with your top song title of the year
  

Duplicate stitch lyrics? Where exactly??? 

That's the only one that is totally nonsensical. There aren't enough stitches to begin AND there is a cable pattern! 

OH! SPEAKING OF! 

Remember that description piece about the cabling? And then it's just a repeat of 2x1 cables. Which I guess could be more interesting than a 2x2, but definitely not DRAMATIC CABLING. Dramatic would be all over cables going everywhere. Mini cables crossing the hands or complicated cable work with 4 or 6 "strands" of cabling dancing around each other.

Proof I know what I'm talking about

I've been talking a lot now, so let's look at some pictures to prove that I do, in fact, know a little bit of what I speak. 

This is what a wrong side cable looks like. It's not reversible. It just looks silly. And yes, this cable was supposed to be on the outside and somehow I messed that up, I don't even know how, but these were made yeeeeeears ago, so I'll give younger and less experienced me a pass on that. These were my first attempt at making fitted, shaped, cabled mitts.

This is worsted weight yarn. Held by itself. On size 8 / 5.5 mm needles. Probably. 

As you can see, there is cabling. 40 stitches cast on. There is a lot of shaping, so the stitch count goes up and down. But 40 stitches. With worsted weight. On size 8 needles. And you can see how snug it is because of the cabling and ribbing. 

​I can say, with absolutely full confidence that this AI pattern will NOT fit, will be a *nightmare* to work, and won't even live up to its promise of being cyber-punk and dramatic and whatever else it said. It's going to be boring, stiff, and too small. 

And because I am on some mandated rest time (notice the compression sleeve under my own mitt-yes, these pictures were taken at the same time as I wrote this), I cannot actually make these to see, but I know there are other people volunteering to do it, so I can't wait to see what kinds of mess it comes out to be. 

Final thoughts

It would be dishonest for me to say that I don't experience the anxiety that others do about AI coming for my creative work. I'm a pattern writer. A book writer. My entire professional life revolves around creative work and trying to make a little bit of money off of it. It's hard enough already to do these things and try to make any semblance of a profit that mirrors the work that goes into it. 

The thought that digital "intelligence" could come and take that away by making in seconds something that takes me months or even years to make is uncomfortable. It's worrying. Especially when a lot of people cannot easily spot the difference between AI generated and human generated. 

It helps to see the kind of slop that currently is out there-books and even patterns like this-and feel a little more secure in my profession for a little while longer, but it's creeping in. Or roaring in. Designers using AI-generated images for their patterns and AI-tech editing and so forth.

I'm the kind of person where creativity oozes out of me; it's not a containable thing. I have to make, to generate, to think up, to dream, to bring to reality. And it takes a lot of time and learning and built skill to do these things. It takes experience to know what will work and what won't and since Chat can't MAKE the thing to know it won't work, it will never gain that experience. I've learned by making stuff that sucks and isn't usable or wearable. I've written lots of stories not worth reading to finally be able to create stories that are worth reading. And again, Chat isn't able to READ or DISSECT like that, so it won't learn what to do to make good stories. 

BUT

When Chat can make these things in seconds or minutes and people turn around and try to sell it for a tiny fraction of what I charge that is more commensurate to my knowledge and experience, well, maybe that's another way that AI threatens our creative realms. People want artisan craftsmanship, but don't understand the artisan pricing that comes along with it. And I don't know what I or anyone else can really do about that. We can shout about it all we want, but the message will not get through. 

There are enough crafters who believe they are owed free patterns and cheap yarn and don't understand the huge amount of work that goes into thinking something up and then making sure it works both in concept and explanation. 

So where do we go from here? 

That's a great question. We keep crafting. We choose intentionality in our purchases. We find people we trust and support their work in supporting our crafting dreams. We keep moving forward. 

After all, what else can we really do? We can't let the slop win.

Have thoughts about any of this? Share them below!