 | OK, here are the items you will need. A wooden dowel with a hole in the center - You can also use a plain ole wooden thread spool - it is a little harder to hold as my dowel is fatter and fits in my hand better. You will need 4, 5, or 6 finishing nails spaced evenly around the hole. I glue my nails into the holes - they tend to come loose as you pull on the wires to lift them. 24ga or 26ga wire. A #12 Crochet Hook and a draw plate of some sort. Hubby made this one several years ago. I also have one made out of Corian. |
 | Feed your wire through the center hole. This will give you a "tail" to pull on as you start to feed your wire loops through the spool and as your chain developes. |
 | Look carefully - you can see the wire coming up from the center of the spool. Wrap your wire around the outside of the nail. Bring it across the center hole to the next nail and loop to the outside again. |
 | Continue in this fashion until you have looped all four nails. This is your first round of wires. Now you need to do the same thing , again - looping all four nails once more. This is the only time you will do this twice. The rest of the time, you will only go around the square once. |
 | As you can see, there are two sets of loops. You are going to use your crochet hook to lift the bottom loops up and over the head of the nail. Start with the first nail you wrapped - otherwise, the wire will be too tight and could break. Do all four nails in succession. |
 | I find that if I wrap my wires in a counter clock-wise direction, then I need to insert my crochet hook on the right side of the nail. This gives you a little "play" in the wire and makes it easier to lift over the top loop and nail head. Once you have brought all your bottom wires up, then you need to wrap all four nails again. Only ONE TIME. Then repeat bringing the bottom wires up and over. Continue doing this until your chain is within 2 inches of the finished chain you want. You'll have to play with this as wire stretches and shapes differently - Fine Wire will be different than Sterling and they will both be different than Artistic. |
To finish the chain, you will need to pull all four wires up off the nails. Clip the end of your wire giving yourself 3-4" to work with. Using the end of your wire, feed it through your open loops like you would a draw-string, pull it fairly tight. This should be pretty secure.
Now you will have to decide how loose or tight you want your weave in your necklace. It needs to be drawn down through the draw plate to give it it's nice round shape. The smaller the holes you use, the tighter the weave will be on your chain. Start with the largest hole. Draw your chain through two times. Go to the next size down hole. Draw your chain through two times. Keep going to get a smaller chain. Remember - each time you draw your chain through a hole, you are work hardening your wire. So be careful.
You can finish the ends with sterling cones on each end or by using a piece of wire coiled around the ends. Make your clasp and you are finished with a basic chain.
Here are a couple of ideas you can do with knitted chain - string beads/pearls and weave them into your necklace - use your chain to hang pendants from, or use them in some other fashion.
Let me know if you have any questions...
