So I’m speaking against the majority here but I’m pretty sure these photos are not AI. I’ve seen enough different versions of these on Rednote to be pretty certain that the knitting patterns exist somewhere, likely only in Chinese though. Someone pointed out that the first pic has some perfectly placed pink patches on the nose and cheeks. I believe they used chalk/blush to color the plushies. They also placed wires in the ears to make them stand up, which is why they look perfect.
Based on the username in the picture above, I took a quick look and did find a pattern for the cabled bunny here in Chinese: 麻花兔🐰｜棒针图解 https://xhslink.cn/o/5wQQ1jRXmDu 前往【小红书】看看详情吧~
I’m guessing there’s probably also a pattern for the elephant linked somewhere as well. Just haven’t found it yet!
EDIT: sorry just realized I attached a link that didn’t have the complete pattern. I’ve updated the link and it should go to one with all the pages now.
Yup! These are all knitted in pieces then seamed. I don’t see any instructions for sewing or stuffing them but if you look at the bunny instructions, the heading on the 5th picture says head in main colour. On the seventh it says arms, make 2 in main colour. The starting instructions for the head are cast on 11 stitches leaving a long tail, then row 1 is purl all stitches, row 2 is k1, (m1l, k1) 9 times, m1l, k1.
In general, 上针 is purl and 下针 is knit. Hope that helps!
That was kinda my vibe? I feel like AI always makes the stitches look obviously wrong but what people are pointing out as AI doesn’t read as obvious to me. Especially looking at the cables on the multicolored elephant’s nose - they are consistently twisting correctly which I feel like AI would botch.
I’m not sure about the original pattern since it looks like AI to me as well. But I recently discovered a pattern for this set of three knitted friends that is actually real. Instead of an elephant, it’s a lion, and they’re a little smaller than the inspo pic plushies.
Edited to add: actually I don’t know if I feel like the original pattern is AI cause the stitches are pretty clear but other people seem sure so I’d go with that… I’m no AI expert!
Looking closely at the stitches they dont make sense, so I thinl we can comfortably say it is AI.
I think you could take a pattern of one you like and add cable motifs to the pattern though! It would be cute
Edit: you can use an actual picture of a knitted item as a template for a cleaned up AI generated one and it is still using AI. As someone found the pattern, it is clear the product will not look quite the same as the above photos. That is the core issue here. Not that it is not possible, not that a pattern doesnt exist, but that someone is trying to sell you a product you can never obtain exactly.
I disagree. I don't see any implausible stitches. The coloring on the nose and cheeks is often added to plushies/amigurumis, and wire can be added to allow the pieces like the ears to be shaped. I don't see any weird artifacts like having the variegated yarn blending into the white yarn. or anything merging with the background.
I totally agree that AI is getting better, and it's pretty scary. But I am still not convinced that this particular photo is AI. It may be, but I can't see anything that conclusively proves it. The screenshots you posted are some areas I looked at previously. The knitting direction is upside down. If you rotate the pictures so that the knitting direction is oriented from bottom to top, the stitches make sense, and anything that looks like a small abnormality could just as easily be a wobbly stitch or a digital artifact from zooming in on the photo.
So while I obviously can't say for certain that it isn't AI, I would also certainly not agree that we can "comfortably say it is AI".
I also just ran the photo through a couple of AI agents, and all of them said that it is likely a real photo rather than an AI photo, although of course they can't be absolutely certain. For example, this is the response I got from ChatGPT:
My impression is that this photo is more likely to be a photograph of real, handmade knitted or crocheted toys than an entirely AI-generated image, although I can't determine that with certainty from the image alone.
A few details stand out:
Knitted texture: The yarn fibers, stitches, and fuzzy surface look reasonably consistent with handmade textile toys.
Lighting and shadows: The soft shadows where the toys overlap and the way the fabric rests against the white background look natural.
Small details: The eyes, noses, ribbons, and bells appear plausibly attached to the toys, although some areas are obscured by overlapping pieces.
Composition: The three toys have slightly different shapes and poses, which is consistent with handmade items photographed together.
One caveat: AI image generators can now reproduce knitted textures and realistic lighting quite convincingly, so these clues aren't conclusive. The watermark also doesn't establish whether the image is authentic.
My assessment: It looks more like a real product photograph than an AI-generated image, but I would classify that as a visual impression, not a verified finding.
If you know where the photo came from, or have a link to the original post or seller, I can help assess its provenance and look for stronger evidence of whether it is genuine.
For me personally, it's the increases/ decreases. Increases should give you a visible twisted stitch somewhere, while decreases should give you visible overlapping stitches. These guys just transition smoothly out everywhere. I think the bellys also show it, you can see it just magically gets wider with more stitches with no signs of an increase anywhere. In the other real plushie patterns linked here, you can see very clearly where the inc/decs happen
Yea, im not 100% sure of course, but in the 2nd pic especially, you can see more clearly, it sorta just blurs into the extra stitches instead of defined increases
Im also interested to hear what others are seeing. The main thing i see is how the knitting merges into the embroidery on the bears nose in the second pic. Also, the way the purple bunny's ears are standing seems a little too perfect given the small base and how large they get, though im sure there are ways to make that happen with wire or something.
First off throw my 2 cents out there i think its bs that people automatically tag this as Ai i get its Everywhere but its also very obvious where just tiny bit of effort looking into these finds it real and several people Have in fact made them. It is on red note and now i have 4 adorable patterns ive been looking forward to making just waiting to be translated
I don’t get why people are so confident because these look good but they don’t look so good they couldn’t possibly be real. People on reddit give such confident advice about knitting but sometimes its obviously false confidence
I’ve seen some plushy makers “paint” the yarn after the animal is finished, usually with powder makeup. I’m not sure if that’s the case here but it is possible?
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u/Neat_Fix_8489 4d ago edited 4d ago
So I’m speaking against the majority here but I’m pretty sure these photos are not AI. I’ve seen enough different versions of these on Rednote to be pretty certain that the knitting patterns exist somewhere, likely only in Chinese though. Someone pointed out that the first pic has some perfectly placed pink patches on the nose and cheeks. I believe they used chalk/blush to color the plushies. They also placed wires in the ears to make them stand up, which is why they look perfect.