A New Approach for Volumetric Knitting

Unlike 3D printers, which offer the ability to fabricate nearly arbitrary geometric forms, most textile fabrication processes are limited to the creation of sheets or hollow surface-based forms. This poster presents a new machine architecture to directly produce volumetric (solid 3D) knitted forms using a 2D bed of knitting needles, rather than the 1D line of needles used in conventional knitting. We describe a small prototype with 4x4 needles, and demonstrate that it can create fully volumetric knits, including overhangs.