Carolin, do you use AI for stitchmarker's nook?
In short: Yes
AI-generated content No
AI-assisted contentYes
Is there AI-generated content on stitchmarker's nook?
No. AI-generated means that a text, image, or even a craft pattern is created by an AI based on a prompt. That does not happen on stitchmarker's nook. I come up with the ideas myself, write the texts and patterns, and create the photos, drawings, and vector graphics myself. This is not about making quick money for me, but about expressing myself and putting my opinions and designs out into the world.
What exactly do you use AI for?
I mainly use AI as an editor and translator, but also as a business coach and for research.
To be honest, I make quite a lot of careless mistakes. AI helps me find them. These include spelling, grammar, punctuation, and even logical errors. They often happen when I rewrite a text several times and change the order of sentences. At some point, I simply become too close to the text to notice them anymore.
Sometimes AI makes unsolicited suggestions about the content as well. That's something I'm quite particular about, though. I don't like being told what to write.
What does using AI as a translator mean?
AI translations are simply faster and often better than my own. I'd rather put my energy into creating new patterns. I'm aware that AI translations into English are not flawless. For example, when translating my Candy Apple pattern, the AI turned the German word Stiel into "stem." But a piece of candy doesn't have a "stem" like an apple does—it has a "stick." Of course, whenever I notice something like that, I correct it.
What does using AI as a business coach mean?
stitchmarker's nook is my first business, and in the beginning I had a lot of questions about business registration, taxes, and business models. For example, I asked AI whether I should use banner advertising or affiliate links on my blog. During the conversation, it became clear that affiliate links were a better fit for me because they allow me to control exactly what is advertised on my site. This means I can, for example, exclude advertising for fast-fashion companies and other questionable products or businesses.
What does using AI for research mean?
For my blog posts, I occasionally need statistics to support my arguments. I find these through internet research and conversations with AI (which, ultimately, are a quick form of internet research).
When I design a new pattern, I also do some market research beforehand. Does something like this already exist? Do people like it? Is it more appealing to the European market, the US market, or perhaps both?
What do you think about AI-generated craft patterns?
It really depends on what an AI was trained for. The language models that are freely available can do certain things very well—for example, writing programming code. In my experience, however, they are absolutely useless when it comes to craft patterns.
An AI once offered to convert one of my crochet patterns into an ASCII crochet chart. It was a really simple, symmetrical pattern. A primary school child could have solved the task. The AI's result was completely wrong. It failed to recognize the symmetry and counted the rows incorrectly.
At that moment, I lost a lot of trust in AI—but I also gained some confidence in myself. I can do things that AI can't (yet), and that's why I keep a firm hand on the wheel. I am the designer, and AI is just a tool.
And what about sustainability?
I'm aware that using AI consumes a lot of energy and increasingly requires land and water as well. That's why I try not to use AI for trivial things, but rather deliberately for complex and specific questions.
In fact, a single well-considered AI query can even be more sustainable than spending an hour researching the internet with a conventional search engine.