Knit jewellery with wire

Saturday 13 June is Worldwide Knit in Public day, an annual event that sees knitters organise mass teaching events, picnics and other events to share the love of the craft.

But knitting isn’t just something you can do with wool, it can be a way of making interesting jewellery too.

Wire knitting (clockwise from top left): Concentric necklace by Teri Howes; Entangled by Niiro of Izola, Slovenia; Necklace by Naive Chic; sculptural bracelet by La Purple Penguin

And it just so happens that Bronagh Miskelly, one of our tutors and our marketing person, is also an expert knitter who works in wire as well as wool so we asked her for a few tips on knitting wire jewellery.

• If you haven’t knitted at all before, practice with wool first using a basic knitting tutorials – verypink.com is a good place to start.
• If you do know how to knit with wool, start simple with wire by knitting a length of garter stitch before you try any fancy shapes or patterns. Basic knit stitch can look really interesting in wire.
• Use metal needles – the smaller the needles the smaller the loops in your piece but don’t start with very small needles because it will more difficult for you to work with the wire before your are used to it.
• Use a very small crochet hook or jewellery tweezers to help pull the wire through.
• Work from wire on a spool and put it on the floor so there is less chance of it kinking or breaking. I use 0.3mm coloured or plated copper wire which is quite fine and can break but with practice it is easy to work with.
• Don’t worry if your stitches aren’t even, it adds to the organic look.