Cross-Stitch

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Cross Stitch Forum Asks for Proof Stitches Aren’t AI

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There are a lot of stories out there these days about AI use in the crafting space for everything from answering technique questions to writing patterns. 

And there’s a lot of content about how to spot AI patterns, or even just photos on the Internet that people are claiming to have made but are clearly AI generated. 

As the models get better, though, it can be harder to tell. Gone (mostly) are the days of AI sewing patterns with models who have too many fingers, but one thing it’s still hard for AI to replicate is individual stitches. 

You’ll see this in knitting, crochet and cross stitch, where a project might look good from a distance but if you zoom in you’ll see there aren’t individual stitches, or they don’t look the way real stitches would look. 

That’s part of the rationale behind a change at r/CrossStitch, the largest cross stitch community on Reddit, which now requires people to show a close up of their finished projects (lots of people seem to be showing off the backs, too) to prove their projects aren’t AI. 

Lord Libidan reported on this news and I agree with them that I’m not sure why people in an online forum would be sharing AI “finished objects” when it’s a venue where you can’t sell patterns. But I understand their desire to keep the forum free of AI images. I wish Etsy had such a requirement so that people selling patterns had to prove they’d actually stitched them (though there are plenty of patterns that just show a chart and not a finished item, AI or not.)

Lord Libidan probably has a different perspective because he’s seen people selling kits made from an AI version of a free cross stitch pattern of his. Which is another layer.

I have my own feelings about AI and crafting but I just think it’s really interesting both the things people will do with AI without saying it’s AI and the lengths other people will go to in order to prove something is or isn’t AI. Or even calling something AI just because it’s really detailed and looks good? What times we live in. 

[Photo via Lord Libidan, closeup of an image made by Google Gemini’s Nano Banana]

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Small Halloween Cross Stitch Patterns

These mini Halloween cross stitch patterns are a great way to add to your holiday decor in a hurry. 

The 28 tiny Halloween cross stitch patterns set from Aliton Embroidery includes all sorts of fun designs, from mushrooms and cats to a plague doctor,  witch hat, bat and ghost. The designs vary a bit in size but the biggest ones are 20 by 22 stitches, which makes them 1.4 by 1.6 inches, or 3.63 by 3.99 cm, when worked on 14 count fabric. Most ot he projects use three or four colors, but there are 22 colors used across the whole set. 

Another great set of tiny designs comes from LaSelva Design. This set has 10 patterns, including a spider, ghost, skull and creepy, bloodshot eye. The largest one of these is 18 by 18 stitches, and all of them fit on 1.5 inch button covers.

This spook sampler from ONESEO is shown as one big piece but you could easily stitch the ones you like individually. Each little patchwork inspired design is the same size, and the full piece is 200 by 200 stitches, which makes each square a little smaller than 50 by 50. You can stitch a spell book or the full moon, an lantern or a pumpkin house, to name a few. In all the design uses 24 colors, and on 14 count fabric it comes out to 14.3 inches or 36.3 cm square. 

These cute mini stamps are also shown as one design you can easily be broken up if you want a smaller project. This one is from And Wabi Sabi and includes a bubbling cauldron, crystal ball and coffin. The full design is 72 by 84 stitches, but each individual design would fit in a 3 inch hoop when stitched on 14 count fabric. The full design uses 15 colors. 

Or there’s this little ghost from XCross Stitch PatternX, which fits in a 5 inch hoop. This one is 51 by 57 stitches and uses 12 colors. On 14 count fabric it measures 3.64 by 4.07 inches or 9.25 by 10.34 cm.