Viking Knit Necklaces

“Viking knitting” is not actually knitting in the way you might think (i.e. with two needles), but is actually a type of weaving. Chains are made using long lengths of wire (up to 8') that are worked by hand into interconnecting loops. Necklaces may contain up to 60' of wire, so several shorter pieces must be joined together during construction of the chain. This can done without the use of solder because the wire is spliced together in a way that is nearly impossible to detect in the finished piece.

The raw chain is woven around a form, typically a wooden dowel, and is then pulled through holes in a wooden draw plate. This process both lengthens the chain and makes it thinner. The result is a flexible and lightweight woven chain. The ends of each chain are finished by hand-coiling a heavier gauge wire, again using only cold connections and no solder. Earrings are made the same way, except that each hoop is woven using one single piece of wire.