trichi...what?

A long time ago, I saw pictures of a technique called Viking knitting. It's also called trichinopoly. It's pretty. It's been in the back of my mind for years, one of those things I was planning to figure out someday.

Saturday was someday. I was thinking about signing up for a Viking knitting class at a local community college, but decided I could probably figure it out without a class. I found a few excellent online tutorials and was further motivated by some Viking knit Etsy offerings. When I realized I already had all the basic supplies here -- not optimal supplies, but good enough to give it a try -- I couldn't resist.

Basically, you use some waste wire to get things set up. Then you make twisted knit stitches with wire, "stitching" around a dowel or pencil.

When you've gone far enough, you take the thingamabob off the dowel and pull it through a draw plate, which is nothing more than a piece of wood with holes of various sizes, starting with a hole on the bigger end of the spectrum and gradually moving through smaller holes. This elongates your work, evens out your stitches, and work hardens the metal so it's stable but pliable.

I'm sure anyone with experience in this is cringeing at my newbie stitches with too fine wire, but hey, you gotta start somewhere. So then I dug around and tried the same thing with some much thicker bronze wire that Leslie Wind gave to us in Mass. a few weeks ago.

Each little bit approximately doubles in length when you pull it through the draw plate holes. I like the idea that I don't need to do a full bracelet/necklace length to use this stuff, but can use segments of it with large-holed slider beads on them. Hmmm...beads...I wonder if I can find a few of those around here... :-)