While my mantra for 2026 is “hot girls crochet,” apparently AI wants to take hot girls’ hobbies away.
If you search ‘crochet pattern’ on Pinterest, your results will vary drastically by your history. After years of curating my feed, I’m lucky that the app knows what I’ll like. Crocheted vests, scarves, and swimsuit coverups show up every day, inspiring me to start (and sometimes accidentally abandon) new projects. Yet if I created a new profile right now and re-entered that same search, AI infiltrates the page.
The epidemic of AI-generated crochet and knit patterns is a new trend. Since early 2025, Pinterest has been called out multiple times online for allowing AI-generated content without warning. Eventually, this led to a setting to opt-out of anything AI generated on the site, but that switch isn’t fool-proof. AI art, models, and patterns still infect my search results.
Alongside this rise in AI, there has been a rise in young women exploring fiber-arts. Maybe we can blame the pandemic for giving us all too much time on our hands, or TikTok for introducing us to more hobbies we have to buy tools for (I really need to revisit those diamond art kits I bought…). Either way, dozens of different types of fiber art styles are on the rise. The biggest trending style right now is Amigurumi.
Amigurumi is maybe the cutest word for the cutest creations. Literally meaning “crocheted stuffed toy” in Japanese, Amugurumi is exactly that. You’ve probably seen them sold on UGA’s campus, or maybe at the Dodd Market, as they’re pretty easy to learn for beginner crocheters and are absolutely adorable when they’re finished. Especially alongside the rise of decorative keychains (I see your Labubus…), hand-made versions always warm my heart. But for some reason, Amigurumi is riddled with AI patterns.
The biggest criminal in this is Krocheta, a site that seems to be 100% AI patterns. I stumbled across this site during my nightly TikTok doomscroll, when I saw a video by Kacie from Hippocorn Designs (@hippocorn006 on TikTok). Kacie invents her own crochet Amigurumi patterns and posts them for free for aspiring crocheters. She was searching for patterns online when she found a stuffed mouse pattern, condensed onto one sheet for easy use! But Kacie immediately noticed some odd things about the pattern…
Even aside from the obvious AI image at the top, a mouse with two muzzles gives it away. The genius that Kacie is, she decided to go ahead and make the mouse anyway.
Uh, guys? New species of mouse dropped. Any fans?
Kacie’s video has gotten 1.8 million views since it was posted in February, and crocheters in the comments can’t stop laughing at how ridiculous the misshapen ‘mouse’ looks by the end. To our amusement, Kacie has made many more of these videos, with each result getting worse. But the patterns used are all from Krocheta, and all posted for free online.
The question is: What is the point of patterns we can’t use?
Krocheta isn’t the only creator posting faux patterns, and they seem to be everywhere. But what does anyone gain from posting this? The engagement is minimal, aside from commenters calling out the AI-use, and sometimes a sweet older lady trying to figure out why it isn’t working.
Crochet has always been a human act. Machines can’t recreate any crocheted item. None of them. Every single crocheted sweater, bag, coverup you see is man-made. And as someone who has the calluses to prove it, it’s hard work!
So oddly, machines are trying to take over the pattern-making side of things instead. The main drive seems to be to put fiber artists out of work. What happens when generative AI actually does figure out how to make effective Amigurumi patterns? The thought makes me sad. Creation is the fun part! The scrolling for patterns, knowing that at least one person has done these exact steps before.
I hate the thought of hobbies being ‘optimized’ for sale. I spent 6 months in 2025 crocheting a curtain for my mom. I could’ve easily bought one! But creation is love. A handmade card for your friend will always mean more than a Hallmark one.
So how do we deal with this?
While it wasn’t the result we wanted, the backlash to Pinterest including AI did bring progress. Ideally, we can achieve even more! If you see AI on the site, don’t pin it, and you can even select “See less like this.”
At the same time, support human-made patterns! My specialty is mostly crocheting clothes, and I’m always happy to recommend creators who test their patterns again and again to make sure they are straightforward and easy for crocheters like us. If you’re looking for patterns, check out Emmy Madeleine, Porsbo Studio, AmazingishGrace, or Bella Coco. For Amigurumi, ETM’s Studio is my favorite! There are hundreds of creators who spend so much time on patterns for us.