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Colorful knitting, crochet, latch hook and macrame from craft book author & designer Heidi Gustad.

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Reimagining Knitting with 3D Printing

October 5, 2015 4 Comments

Reimagine knitting with 3d printing

As a public librarian, I have been able to experiment with 3D printing as part of my job working with teens. I’m lucky because my library has a maker lab outfitted with all kinds of equipment designed to enable people to develop their own designs, ranging from avant garde shoes to robots. 3D printing has been around for awhile, but has become more accessible recently. If you’re brand new to 3D printing, it is what it sounds like: printing in 3 dimensions as opposed to flat. The 3D printer I have uses a recyclable filament that, when heated, forms objects layer by layer. If you’re curious to see how 3D printing looks in action, check out the video in this post.

Now that we’ve gone over what 3D printing is, I should probably tell you what the heck this has to do with knitting! :) Earlier this year, I shared 2 dimensional scanning and design that can be done with the HP Sprout by letting you inside the knit design process and showing you how to digitally organize your yarn labels. More recently, HP sent me a 3D Capture Stage and the Dremel Idea Builder, a 3D printer, to use along with the Sprout so I could take this technology to the next level and reimagine knitting with 3d printing.

Use 3D printing to reimagine your handmade crafts as statement jewelry! Click through to learn how.

Using a swatch of knitting made with rope, I 3D scanned, modified and printed a statement necklace using HP’s technology, all in the comfort of my own home. After successfully printing my swatch, I attached the 3D printed pendant to jewelry chain and a lobster clasp with craft pliers and jump rings.

Use 3D printing to reimagine your handmade crafts as statement jewelry! Click through to learn how.

Supplies

HP Sprout
white rope
knitting needles
HP 3D Capture Stage
Dremel Idea Builder (3D Printer)
jump rings: two 7mm, one 4mm & one 6mm
lobster clasp
jewelry chain
jewelry pliers

Directions

I made a video to show you how I was able to create this project, end-to-end, using the Sprout’s all in one desktop technology:

As I mention in the video, I added a backing piece to my 3D scan to give it some added structure. The natural shape of the knitting was too delicate to print on its own, so incorporating a thin wedge on the back made 3D printing it possible. Check out the front and back of the pendant in this GIF to see how I made this scan and print work.

Knitting swatch necklace made by replicating your own knitting or crochet with 3D printing - click through to learn how to do this at home.

The final step of attaching the jewelry chain to the 3d printed pendant was easy! Since the 3D scan detected the open loops at the top of the swatch, all I need to do was attach jump rings to the loops on each side of the pendant. I used two 7mm jump rings to attach the chain to the pendant, and I used a 4mm ring to attach the clasp to the chain and an additional 6mm jump ring to the raw end of the chain.

Knitting swatch necklace made by replicating your own knitting or crochet with 3D printing - click through to learn how to do this at home.

Like I say in the video, I really am loving wearing this lightweight statement necklace. As knitters, we’re used to the great feeling of getting to wear something we’ve made by hand. What’s extra special for me about this piece is knowing that every bit of it, from beginning to end, was designed and made by me. Even though this project has an industrial feel, there’s some soul in it too, having come from my own hands.

Use 3D printing to reimagine your handmade crafts as statement jewelry! Click through to learn how.

This is a sponsored post. HP provided compensation and the equipment used to create this project. 

  • Visit the Sprout website
  • See other project ideas in the Sprout Creator Gallery
  • Find out more about the Sprout

Filed Under: Giveaways, Reviews & Sponsored, How-to, Knitting, Knitting & Crochet, Video Tutorials Tagged With: 3d printed necklace, 3d printing, dremel idea builder, gomakethings, hp, hp sprout, knitted necklace, reimagine knitting, sproutbyhp, swatch necklace

About Heidi

Heidi Gustad is a craft book author & content creator in love with primary colors & vintage vibes. She specializes in knitting, crochet, latch hook and macramé, and her first book, Latch Hook: 12 Projects for the Modern Maker, is out now!

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Comments

  1. Jessica [Havok]

    October 5, 2015 at 10:02 am

    3D Printing is an awesome thing – for PAXPrime, a YouTube me and my Mister follow 3D printed a Stormtrooper suit to wear, and it turned out rather fantastic! I haven’t yet heard of scanning something in to print it up, though – that would be fun to explore! :D

    Reply
  2. Julie

    October 6, 2015 at 10:09 am

    wow, what a cool idea, and how fun that you get to experiment with this technology! I haven’t tried 3d printing yet, but I’d love to give it a go. I’m hoping in the future we’ll have other materials we can ‘print’ with, other than plastic. Imagine how pretty it would be to do the same design in metal!

    Reply
    • Heidi

      October 7, 2015 at 2:38 pm

      Thanks, Julie! It was fascinating! :)

      Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Bringing the Worlds of 3D Scanning, 3D Printing and Knitting Together with the … says:
    October 9, 2015 at 6:20 pm

    […] can review about Gustad’s plan over on her Hands Occupied blog, and learn some-more about a HP Sprout here. And here is a video of a Sprout in movement branch […]

    Reply

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Heidi Gustad from Hands Occupied / Craft Book Author and Knitting, Crochet, Latch Hook and Macrame Designer

Hi! I’m Heidi (she/her/hers), a craft book author & pattern designer specializing in knitting, crochet, latch hook & macrame. Really anything with yarn! ❤️  My work combines vintage and modern design elements, featuring bold colors and graphic motifs.

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handsoccupied

Yarn craft designer & author. Into intarsia knits, latch hook, color & vintage-modern style.
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If you look closely, you’ll see I’m casually k If you look closely, you’ll see I’m casually knitting from one sweater into another here, no big deal. (What can I say, I lost a game of yarn chicken. 😂) I almost didn’t post this because I was worried someone might have some nonsense to say about my ability to knit. Then I remembered I can’t care about that. Silly me, I almost forgot myself! 
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