Knitted Christmas ornaments, and not one strand of yarn among them. Every cable, rib and bobble on these designs is modeled straight into the plastic, which is how sweater texture ends up on a bauble, a stocking and even the roof of a little house.
That texture has a past. Christmas jumpers caught on in the UK in the 1980s, once TV presenters started wearing them through the holidays, and in the early 2000s North America made the ugly Christmas sweater a deliberately gaudy, tongue-in-cheek trend. These 3D printed ornaments keep the cozy half of that story and leave the loud half in the drawer.
Important
Every model in this list is printed in plastic (PLA or PETG). Never put a real candle inside or near them: use only LED tealights or LED string lights.
Knit Christmas Ornaments for the Tree
Branches first: six designs that begin in soft cream and finish with cables and bobbles.
Cream Snowflake, Heart and Ball
Real snowflakes are all points and edges, so a snowflake in chunky knit is a cozy contradiction: winter’s coldest shape, made to look warm enough to wear. It hangs on a white cord from a length of driftwood, with a cream heart and a cream round ball for company.
See the Cream Snowflake, Heart and Ball
Knit Teardrop Baubles
Of everything in this list, these come closest to an ordinary bauble, with a teardrop outline and a gold cap. That makes them the easiest knit Christmas ornaments to mix into a tree already hung with glass: a few in cream, green and deep red slip in among the old favorites and add ribbed sweater texture without anyone rearranging a single branch.
Knit Heart Ornaments
Plump is the word: cable-knit hearts in pink, sage green and cream, hung on twine, with enough rounded body to fill the sort of gap on a branch that a flat ornament leaves bare.
Crochet-Look Character Ornaments
Penguin, candy cane, wreath, reindeer: two animals, a sweet and some greenery, with nothing much in common. One crochet-look stitch and the same tiny bow on every piece work as a uniform, and the snowman, the gingerbread man and the star fall in alongside them without a single clash.
See the Crochet-Look Character Ornaments
Knit Charms and Ornaments
Flat backs make these knit-textured charms easy to glue onto the front of a Christmas card: a red stocking or a reindeer face in raised stitches turns a folded sheet into something worth keeping.
See the Knit Charms and Ornaments
Cable Knit Sweater Ornaments
Rust is the clever part. Both balls are cream and both look hand-knitted, one in cable stripes with bobbles, the other carrying a snowflake pattern, and the rust-colored cap and loop on each give the eye somewhere warm to land. Keep that pairing if you paint them or print the caps in a second color: against cream, rust looks like a leather button on a good cardigan, where gold would turn the whole thing into jewelry.
See the Cable Knit Sweater Ornaments
Knitted Look Characters, Stockings and Houses
From here the shapes get livelier. Next come knitted Christmas decorations with more personality: long-bodied spiral characters, mini stockings, and two houses that sit rather than hang.
Spiral Knit Characters
They hang by a snowy window, and only the green bear thought to wear a scarf; the gingerbread man and the pink nutcracker brave it in nothing but their long crochet-look spirals.
See the Spiral Knit Characters
Knit Stocking Ornaments
Saint Nicholas’s life is thought to be where the stocking custom began. An empty sock goes up on Christmas Eve or on Saint Nicholas Day, and he is supposed to leave small toys, sweets, fruit or coins inside. Hanging these on his day is a gentle nod to that story: one cabled, one ribbed and trimmed with pom-poms and a bow, one with a star, each a knitted Christmas stocking in beige, cream or tan, hung for the tale rather than the haul.
See the Knit Stocking Ornaments
Knit Roof Houses
Each white house wears a knitted-looking roof, a tall cone with a star on one and a snowflake on the other: two cottages bundled into winter hats. Under those hats are windows and open doorways, and after dark they can glow from a battery LED tealight tucked inside. Never put a real candle or any open flame in them, however tempting the idea; they are printed plastic.
Making the Stitches Show
Knitted Christmas decorations only look knitted when shadows can settle into the stitches. Light them from the side, letting a low LED lamp or the tree’s LED string skim across the surface instead of hitting it head-on. If you paint, brush a dark wash over the knit, then wipe the raised parts clean so the color stays down in the grooves. A matte finish keeps glare from flattening it all again.
