Gail Nettles

I know it's been longer than I had planned, to get you these viking knit chain photos, but I've finally had a chance to sit down and catalog what I had, and what you might like to see.

Viking Knit Bracelet (Click to Enlarge)

First off, I've been making mostly bracelets, along with some necklaces.  So far, no earrings (that's my next project).   This first bracelet looks rather plain at first glance.  But when you hold it in your  hand, it looks like copper lace.  And it's nice and light and oh-so-comfortable.

Next is a bracelet I decided a little more color.  So, I've incorporated seed and lampwork beads in this particular piece of jewelry.

Beaded Viking Knit Bracelet (Click to Enlarge)

I had a whole lot of fun with it.  Of course, I had to include some of my own lampwork beads while I was at it.  I've gotten lots of compliments on it, how it looks like the seed beads have been woven into a net.

(BTW, I have included instructions for a similar bracelet in my Intro to Viking Knit tutorial.)

OK, what next?  Hmmm, time for a necklace perhaps?

This particular necklace uses viking knit as the background, with the wire-wrapped pendant as the focal.

Viking Knit Necklace and Pendant

I have a blast doing these free-form pendants!  I've always had a problem with them though; they are substantial in size and need a chain that is equally substantial.  And viking knit fits in nicely!

But a viking knit chain doesn't need to be relegated to just the background, not at all!

Although viking knit can be a necklace all by itself, it can be equally intriguing when different gauges and styles of viking knit chain are incorporated in the same piece.

I have a work in progress there I've mixed 24 gauge single knit and 26 gauge double knit -- looks kind of cool so far!

So far I've used copper, artistic wire, brass and also am working in silver.  I have some gold-filled wire, but I haven't decided what to do with it yet (seeing as it's so very expensive these days).  I'm sure sooner or later an idea will come to me and I'll dig into my stash of gold-filled.

Viking Knit Bracelet -- Flight of the Bumblebee

Here's something that I call "Flight of the Bumblebee" which turned out very interesting indeed!  You see, when I grabbed my wire, both the brass and the black wire were supposed to be 26 gauge.  That being the case, I figured I'd do some double-knit.

Well, if the brass was 26 gauge, I'll buy and eat a hat!  So my brass portions are thicker than the black (which really was 26 gauge).  At any rate, it's a cool look and it feels really neat!

In fact, I may dig into my small stash of gold-filled wire and do a mix of it with sterling silver.  Hmmmm......

That's it for the moment; more later!