I really love to crochet. Something about the ability to create literally anything out of one versatile material provides just enough stimulation and relaxation for my brain. For me, crochet isn’t just a hobby. I am constantly on the hunt for new patterns and new projects, and I love supporting the bloggers online who give out their patterns for free. There is a specific rhythm to it that provides a perfect level of productive relaxation. That being said, I’ve also purchased quite a few crochet patterns, most of them being on Etsy. There’s so many patterns online; you can find clothing, toys, blankets, and so much more. It’s very rewarding to buy a pattern from a small business owner and know that you are both supporting them and treating yourself to relaxation! That’s why my encounter with Crocheteaseshop felt like such a personal betrayal.
As I was scrolling through patterns on Etsy in search of a new project, I stumbled across a really interesting idea: a flower-shaped crochet lamp pattern! I was super interested, because in my head a small lamp with a really cute crochet flower around it sounded adorable, and not too difficult either. The picture of the finished project was beautiful, but something just didn’t feel right. The finished product didn’t look overly difficult; anyone with a small amount of crochet experience could predict a little bit about the pattern in their mind.
As I stared at the listing, I realized I wasn’t just looking at a bad pattern; I was looking at an example of synthetic deception. Synthetic deception happens when AI is used to create a completely fictional product and then markets it as reality.
This looks beautiful, doesn’t it? The first thing I imagined was this little flower lamp sitting on my desk while I work on homework. The more I looked at this rose, though, the more I realized how difficult it would be to actually assemble. Yes, the stitching doesn’t look too in-depth, but how is the light installed in the flower? Is the flower crocheted around the lightbulb? Are the pre-crocheted pieces stitched together? Where is the power cord or battery pack? And why is the light shining so bright through the yarn? If you think critically about the construction, there are quite a few layers of petals over that bulb. The light would have to be incredibly bright to shine through so much thickly stitched yarn. While I was wondering that, I happened to look at the stem of the flower.
I will readily admit that I am not the most experienced crocheter out there, but I do know one thing for sure: crochet stitches physically cannot get smaller in size as they go. For reference, I’ve included a picture of another crocheted flower stem.
While the general flowers are a bit different, the concept remains the same: the literal size of the stitch is consistent throughout the pattern. The number of stitches may increase and decrease, but the physical size of the individual stitch cannot increase or decrease. In crochet, your stitch size is determined by the diameter of your hook and the weight of your yarn. While you can change the number of stitches to create shapes, you cannot physically shrink the size of an individual stitch as it travels down a stem.
What I found to be the most confusing thing about this whole shady online shop was that the reviews for the store and its patterns were really good. At first glance, Crocheteaseshop looks like a massive success: over 5,000 sales and a 4.5-star rating. As I started digging into the feedback, I noticed a huge disconnect. The 5-star reviews were all pre-creation. People were leaving five star reviews before they even tried the pattern.
It wasn’t until I filtered for the 1-star reviews from people who actually made the pattern that the synthetic deception became obvious. These buyers described the PDF patterns as completely nonsensical, with instructions that were either unfinished or physically impossible to execute. As Caulfield and Wineburg argue in Verified, the goal of digital literacy isn’t just to find ‘the truth,’ but to develop the lateral reading skills needed to spot a fake before you’re already $5 deep into a scam.
To really see the synthetic deception for what it is, I had to find what actual crochet authority looks like. I looked at a designer named June Gilbank (the creator of PlanetJune), and the difference is night and day. While Crocheteaseshop hides behind AI, a real designer provides ‘better coverage’ through physical proof.
On a legitimate site like PlanetJune, you aren’t just buying a finished photo; you’re seeing step-by-step tutorials of actual human hands working the yarn. There’s a technical accountability there that a bot can’t fake. Her reviews on Etsy don’t just say ‘it looks pretty,’ the reviews say the patterns actually work. It proves that in the world of SIFT, better coverage means finding a creator who shows the messy, middle parts of the craft, not just an AI-generated end goal.
This part goes into the end of my research where I found out that the patterns actually do exist, the cover images are just AI-generated. It’s all still confusing because there are hardly any reviews talking about the finished product, but the few that exist only mention the pattern being confusing at times. The few that included pictures of finished projects looked real enough, but didn’t say anything about the pattern being gibberish.
I purchased the pattern for the tulip flower lamp, so I could see it myself. The pattern included needed materials, instructions, and even a custom lamp to fit the pattern perfectly. The lamp the shop linked seems real, and its $30 price tag would explain why they sell their patterns so cheap.
While I have not yet begun this pattern due to school, I was able to find some reviews of the shop that looked legit. One user, Barbara, said that the seller was very helpful when she had questions about the cardigan pattern that she purchased. She included a picture of her finished product, and the cardigan looked similar to the cover picture, but it’s obvious that Barbara chose to use different colors. Even so, the basics of the cardigan looked pretty similar to the shape of the one advertised in the cover photo of the pattern. If the patterns are real, and they produce real products, why use AI to make more appealing cover photos? Skipping the step where potential buyers become skeptical of your credibility kind of seems like a no-brainer. I wanted to know why a store that very well seems to sell real patterns that create real products would use AI to draw their customers in.
I did a quick Google search for “AI-generated cover photos for crochet” and was met with a couple blogs and Reddit threads providing tips to detect fake cover photos. Unsurprisingly, I found no evidence of anyone being in favor of the AI-generated pictures. This thought led me to ask why shop creators would even consider that people would be more likely to buy their products with a “more appealing” cover. My next thought was something like this: “maybe the shop owners are counting on those few people who can’t tell the difference?” If there will always be one or two people who will just think they found a pretty pattern, or a pretty dress or basically anything else, shop creators who ust AI to draw people in will always have a business. I had just completed some Spanish homework before working on this quest, and I felt like not being able to tell if a picture is AI was kind of like not being able to read a word in a different language. If you’re not familiar, there’s almost no hope in figuring it out. I decided to look at Google Scholar for anything to do with visual literacy. I ended up finding a WordPress HTML site that covers visual literacy in teaching and education. Right in the middle of the abstract, it read “[visual literacy is] defined as the ability to interpret images as well as to generate images for communicating ideas and concepts.” According to this definition, someone who lacks visual literacy would have an incredibly hard time finding the difference between a real cover image and one created by AI.
While going through the search results about visual literacy, I found a source that covers digital AI in marketing. This source touches on synthetic deception and how the use of AI in advertising could challenge consumer protection laws. I’m really glad that I found this source, because it ties back into the AI cover photos of crochet patterns deceiving potential customers.
It was really fun to learn that SIFT can be applied anywhere, not just to “factual” information! I’m always going to keep an eye out when browsing for anything online now. Just because reviews are good, it doesn’t mean you can trust it.
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