If you google “knitting pattern” and “dish cloth”, then AI will put together a knitting pattern for you based on the patterns found online. I discovered this when I searched for an exciting pattern to buy a short while ago. It occurred to me that AI steadily can gain a bigger place in the world of knitting patterns that we are familiar with. The more knitting patterns are made freely available online, the easier it will be for AI to custom make patterns for the person googling for them. And then it will become even harder for designers to sell their patterns.

Is this a problem? For me, it is. It is not just about the financial aspect. I need to know that there are people behind the knitting patterns I use. I am convinced that the aesthetic value of designs will fall if there is not a person and a will behind them. I need personal and unique features in the items I use!

This is why I have been working on designs for dish cloths. I wished to make it clear that the dish cloths were not knitted from a pattern that AI had found. It needed to be obvious that they were created by a person. I got out paper and pencil and hand drew some patterns, which I then transferred to pattern paper and knitted. Four dish cloths were created, which you can see above, and which you now can knit.

It is my hope that you, when you have one of these dish cloths in your hand during the course of your day and are wiping off a table, are reminded that items created by persons are valuable and worth opting into – again and again!

With love, Bente Flinker/Flinker Strikdesign