Viking Knit Wire Jewelry

A pattern for a circular chain in double or single “knit”

Ladyship Ivegard Sask (Teryl Basinger)

Class handout – Uprising, 2008

Sweden's Museum of National Antiquities (Historiska Museet) from the Vårby hoard, Sweden, 10th ce.

Background

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When thinking of Viking art, do images of fancifully carved mast-

heads or tent staves come to mind? What about guilded brooches with

intricately twining loops and figures? Whatever the medium, Viking art is

stylized by interlaced lines, worked in regular precise patterns. Other

handcrafts mirrored this sceme – from woodworking to tablet-weaving and

naalbinding to jewelrymaking. Everything in the Viking worldview was

interconnected. Wire weaving is also called “Trichonopoly.”

The silver necklace at left is one from a silver hoard from Denmark,

dated to the 10

th

Century (WOV 5059.) It is not chain, but rather knitted or

woven wire which forms a flexible tube when stretched. This technique has

been compared to a naalbinding stitch called the “Mammen Stitch.” To form

the links, a length of wire is looped successively through previous loops

around and around a central rod. The rod is removed to stretch this cord of

woven wire to its final length. Finials of cone-shaped beads, twisted wire, and even

highly decorative animal heads were all used to close the necklaces or connect them to

pendants.

“Urnes” style animal-head clasp on a silver
necklace found in Norway. Dated to 1100 ce.

Wire edging in 4mm silver wire on a man’s
garment sleeve. Denmark, 10th ce.

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This technique of jewelry-making was not as prevalent as the multi-strand twisted

wire torques and bands, but was nonetheless widespread. Examples have been found

dating to as early as the 8

th

century and as late as the 12

th

, and pieces wrought of silver,

tin, tin-alloys, and gold have been found in many Scandinavian countries, including

present-day Norway, Sweden and Gotland, and Denmark.

Wire-weaving was used in other decorative applications, including edgings for

textiles. The embroidered fabric (above, right) is actually a hem of a man’s tunic (WOV

2383.) The wire-weaving applied to the edge helps to protect the hem from wear as well

as being an interesting embellishment.

The patterns

The technique is a simple one to recreate. It requires minimal tools – in fact it can

be accomplished with just a nail or allen wrench or another slender rod. Metalworking

tools in period were much the same as those we have today (the non-powered type, that

is) and include pincers and clamps, hammers, punches, awls and files. I didn’t end up

needing any of these, but I did use wire cutters and jewelers’ pliers however. The wire I

used was not silver, but alloys readily available through the local craft store. Since the

Vikings sometimes used alloys, I felt this was an acceptable compromise. Here’s how to

weave wire:

Step 1: Make 3 loops out of a piece of wire and twist

them together at the top. Splay the bottom of the loops like
an open tulip, and slip the allen wrench in the middle of the
“blossom.”

Step 2: Take a length of wire and twist the top of it

around the twisted end of the group of wires. Thread the end
through – from right to left – behind two overlapping loops.
Draw it out and loop it over itself.

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Step 3: Turn the allen wrench to the left in your hand so that you have the

next pair of adjacent overlapping loops facing you. Thread the end through again –
from right to left – behind these two loops. Draw it out and loop it over itself.

Step 4: Turn the allen wrench again the same

direction and thread a loop through the last pair of
adjacent starter loops. The direction of the turning and
the threading must be consistent for the entire project.

Step 5: When you return to the first loop you

threaded, insert your wire end behind the criss-cross and
draw it through in the same direction as the first row of
loops. Continue to do this around and around, ad
infinitum, until you have about 2/3 to 3/4 the desired
finished length.

Note: When you run out of wire, simply slip a new

length in approximately where the last one left off, and tuck
in the short ends. Continue looping.

Double knit is accomplished

in a similar way to single knit, above.

Only for the loops in the second row,

insert the wire end in the same place

but behind the first loop, and draw it

over itself as before. For loops after

the second row, the wire end will be

inserted behind TWO loops instead of

one. This weave will get impossibly

tight if you draw your wire too hard,

so be careful!

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Bibliography & Sources

Peterson, Irene. Great Wire Jewelry. Lark Books, NY. 1998.

Theophilus, (trans. John Hawthorne and Cyril Smith.) On Divers Arts. Dover Books.
New York, 1979.

York Archaeological Trust and the National Museum of Denmark, The World of the
Vikings (CD-ROM), Past Forward Limited, undated.


On-line:

Danr Bjornsson (mundanely Don Willadson.) 10

th

Century Woven Wire Arm Ring.

From: http://willadsenfamily.org/sca/danr_as/woven-arm-ring/woven-arm-ring.htm

Historika Museet (Historical Museum of Sweden)
From:

http://www.historiska.se/collections/treasures/medeltid-e.html

Viking silver in Arctic Norway

, December 2005.

From: http://saltosobrius.blogspot.com/2005_12_01_saltosobrius_archive.html

Apollonia Voss (Lora-Lynn Stevens.) Viking Chain Knitting. 2004.
From:

http://userweb.suscom.net/~apolloniavoss/trichinopoly4.htm

.