Viking Knitting Project

In an earlier post I described some of the Viking Knitting projects I had been doing, making simple knitted wire rope jewellery based on an ancient technique but made easier with modern tools. The Lazee Daizee™ Viking Knit Tools were developed by Stephanie Eddy and I was browsing her website to see what a more advanced jewellery maker could make – her inspiration gallery is certainly inspiring – and discovered that she had a sale on some jewellery kits. Unfortunately she is moving away from focusing on Viking Knitting to expand to a whole range of different creative endeavours. The basic kits and books are still available but she was selling off some more advanced kits that incorporated various different jewellery making techniques as well as Viking Knitting. I bought a Bracelet, Necklace & Pendant Kit in colours that I wouldn’t normally choose to make the whole thing a challenge for me.

The kit is copyright so I can’t take you step by step through it but I can show you some of the aspects and of course the finished product.

First you make a length of wire viking knitting in the usual way. In this project a thin piece of plastic piping is threaded through the middle to keep the shape and #20 gauge wire passed through as well, finished on each end with a bead threaded on and a wrapped loop created.

 

The next step is making a bead wrap: thread seed beads onto #26 gauge wire with the largest beads in the middle and secure each end; wrap the beaded wire around the Lazee Daizee tool to get the right size and then transfer to the wire rope, pulling tight and securing the ends by passing them through the knitted wire. This is such an easy way to add some ‘bling’ to an otherwise plain necklace or bracelet.

I had bought a Wire Coiling Device a while ago but had never actually made anything with it, so I was quite excited to be using it in this project. It is very simple once you’ve set it up: twist one end of the wire around the ‘handle’ to secure it then hold the loose end of the wire in one hand to keep it in place and turn the handle to form a coil. You can cut the finished length of coil into smaller pieces without it coming undone.

Then you thread wire through the middle of the coils and create a bigger coil that is used to finish off the ends of the knitted rope and the beaded wrap. Each coil is finished with a bead and then the ends of the wire threaded through the knitted rope to secure it. For the bracelet, the piece is finished off with a toggle clasp.

For the necklace, the basic piece is the same but a length of chain is added at each end and also finished with a toggle clasp. A free-form pendant is created to match the bead wrapping and hung from the middle of the knitted rope (a head pin is pushed through the rope and a wrapped loop created to hang the pendant from).