Knitting Daily Offers Ebook of Season 900 Patterns

I completely forgot to mention — probably because my PBS station doesn’t run it! — that the latest season of Knitting Daily TV recently started airing. The good people at Knitting Daily have made it easier for all of us to follow along with the projects mentioned in the series by producing a free ebook containing 13 patterns (knit and crochet) from the series.

The book includes the lovely Chevron Market Bag by Kristen TenDyke, Ann Berk’s Albus Argyle Socks, the textured chevron Amstel Hat by Courtney Kelley, Laura Bryant’s multi-textured Lush Cowl and a dropped-stitch hat, scarf and vest for men by Kathy Zimmerman, to name a few. Some of the patterns were clearly scanned from other sources and don’t look great on my computer, but they’re still readable enough to use and knit from.

Do you watch Knitting Daily TV? I’m a few seasons behind because I have to get the DVDs, but I’ve always enjoyed it and learned something from my time spent with the program.

[Photo by Knitting Daily TV.]

Lots of craft designers are understandably frustrated about the proliferation of AI “designed” patterns and photos of projects that have no basis in reality. People who don’t know how to tell if a project is AI are often also frustrated when they see a picture for something but there’s no pattern because it’s not real, or they buy a pattern that doesn’t actually explain how to make the thing or ends up looking totally different from the picture.

Some designers have taken it upon themselves to try to make some of those AI patterns that we see online, often with hilarious results.

Katherine Foster was inspired by a famous AI elephant to make what she calls “AIlephant,” which is now a free knitting pattern on Ravelry.

Her prototype uses worsted weight yarn, but you can use whatever yarn you like to make different sizes of elephants.

The elephant features a cable running down the trunk and a different cable pattern on the back. It’s worked in pieces that are joined and stuffed as you go. It uses German short row shaping on the body and includes written instructions as well as a chart for the cable patterns.

Reading through the pattern, it sounds a little fiddly, which makes sense because it was designed to look like a pattern that isn’t real. But it’s doable, as evidenced by the handful of projects you can find on Ravelry. The ears on her version aren’t quite as big and round or maybe don’t sit in quite the same place as the AI version (which if you haven’t seen it there’s a photo of that on the projects page, too). But it’s a pretty honest replica of a dishonest photo, and a really cute elephant in its own right.

If you make this one I would love to hear about it!

You can grab the free pattern on Ravelry.

[Photo: Katherine Foster]

Have you read?