The Quest for Authentic Photos in Knitting Patterns

We're living in a time when authentic creativity is more valuable than ever. The certainty that when you looked at an image and knew it was real, is now being questioned. 

I made the decision years ago to NOT use AI in knitwear design.  I don't use it in photos, patterns, on social media, or anywhere in the process of design. Hiring a local photographer, local models, and using different locations in town for our photo shoots is real and feels right.

For everything else, like those cute pictures of sheet when I go to festivals, the iPhone works just fine. It may not be the richly saturated mesmerizing photo of sheep, there may be shadows and the odd bucket in the background, but it's true.

I write patterns by hand, proof them until I can't look at them any longer, then hire a tech editor to go through the pattern. Then proof again.

I draw my own sketches, swatch out stitch patterns with scrap yarn, create my own charts and schematics, and grade patterns using spreadsheets and industry standards.

The entire process is a labor of love, but is authentic, and one that I have complete control over. I'm incredibly proud of the result. When it's well-received, I am filled with a sense of accomplishment. When there are mistakes, I take total ownership and fix them.

AI may be good in other applications, but not for what I do. It fails the creative community greatly. As I write this article, a little box is popping up offering to "create a full-length blog post", for me or to "create unique images for this post" to "write a catchy title to this post" and more. The easy way is to let it.

But as Theodore Roosevelt once said, "nothing worth having was ever achieved without effort." Putting forth that effort results in the confidence and satisfaction that comes with a job well-done.

I believe that when a knitter looks at a photo advertising a knitting pattern, that the sweater, model, background and all elements should be real.  If not, then what are you buying?  If you buy and knit the pattern, what will it look like?  How do you have any certainty in the finished hand-knit product if the photo isn't real?

Knitting magazine and book editors have always been so careful to make sure the sample photographed matched the design exactly.  If a designer submitted a pattern with a gauge of 22 stitches per inch, but the sample sweater measured 23 stitches per inch, the pattern would be re-written to match the gauge before publication.  Because what you see, should be the exact sweater you end up with if you knitted the pattern according to the instructions.

AI can now create a photo of a model wearing a sweater based on a few words typed into a message bar. This photo can be used to sell the pattern. When this happens, there is a huge disconnect and breach of trust between pattern seller and knitter.  Some sites like Ravelry are removing designer accounts who use AI generated photos, but they are the rare filter.

If you see a photo that is dark, or not as perfect as it could be, or if you see a post on Instagram with a misspelled word in the caption, instead of criticizing it, appreciate that in a time of artificial, superficial perfection, there are still authentic creatives out here. We create beginning to end. We stand by our work.

We want the knitter to succeed, and to knit a garment or accessory that you love. That is the bond that makes the designer - knitter dynamic complete. It's not about putting something out there to increase the number of followers or make quick sales.

It's about honoring the tradition of knitting and taking designs to new heights using skill, imagination, and creativity. It's about pushing the boundaries of what knitwear design can be and designing from deep within our hearts and minds. It's not a world of short cuts and empty promises of fast results. It's about leaning into the skill we all love, the skill of knitting, learning new techniques, making clothing slowly, one stitch at a time, and the trust between knitter and designer that we both share. Knitters trust designers to deliver accurate, well-written patterns that produce the sample shown in the photos. And that is a trust that I don't take lightly.