Week 52-3 - Knitting With Wire

Do you remember spool knitting from when you were a child? I do and I also remember not knowing what to do with all those long snakes. HOWEVER... knitting with wire is way better. You end up with a chain perfect for a necklace or bracelet.

I like traditional Viking Knit but wanted a more efficient, less labour intensive method than the one I was using so I challenged myself to knit with wire trying a variety of gauges to see which would create a flexible chain with the least amount of physical work - read damage to my wrists. My favourite gauge is 26.

The spool is wrapped in exactly the same method as we did with yarn moving around the pegs from right to left clockwise while winding the wire counter-clockwise around each individual peg. The bottom loop is then lifted up and over the wound wire and dropped to the inside. The chain grows down the middle of the spool. If the wire lifts up and over easily, all is good. If it takes tremendous effort and doesn't want to budge and even breaks, typically you've gone one peg too far and need to go back one. After I knit the length I wanted, I passed the chain through the draw plate as with traditional viking knit and condensed it as much as I wanted. Beware - knitting wire is addictive.

With traditional viking knit, the end of the wire is passed continuously through the loops both work-hardening the wire and requiring the use of shorter lengths which leaves sharp ends to be turned in. With this method, one long length of wire can be knit off its spool and is only passed once around the peg with no ends and no work-hardening. It's great.

Talk soon - Myrna

Grateful - an easier way to make chains