KNITTED WIRE EARRINGS

Obviously, I got this idea from an article in Threads about
two years ago, but mine are a bit different from the ones
shown in the article.

Materials:  several yards of 26-gauge silver wire (28 is good if you can
               get it; 24 will work in a pinch with bigger needles and lots
               of patience)
            seed beads
            metal needles (size 5 is pretty good)
            silver earring findings with a loop to attach earring to
               (I use the fisherman-hook style)

Instructions: String beads (at least 20 or more; you don't have to use
them all) onto wire and "tie" a big loose overhand knot to keep them from
falling off. Cast on 2 stitches (LOOSELY! all your knitting must be very
loose!) at the other end and start knitting, increasing one at each end
every row until earring is as wide as you want (I think 8 is a good
number).  Whenever you want a bead in the next stitch, pull one up.  I did
this randomly, but you can do it in a pattern if you want to.  Knit
straight until earring is "long enough" (whatever that is), undo overhand
knot and release unused beads, then bind off and work end of wire into
knitting.  Attach earring finding to top 2 loops.  (I make my own earring
findings from heavy silver wire and sometimes add a larger matching bead
in the finding itself.) Repeat for second earring.

ASCII picture of body of earring:

                                   VV
                                  VVVV
                               VVVVVV
                             VVVVVVVV
                             VVVVVVVV                         
                             VVVVVVVV
                             VVVVVVVV
                             VVVVVVVV
                             VVVVVVVV
                             VVVVVVVV
                             VVVVVVVV

I made one really stunning pair of these using freshwater pearls and clear
blue seed beads.  Obviously they get big really fast--one with as many rows
as the above picture might brush your shoulders unless you have a long
neck!  They take about an hour or two to do and are great fun.


Happy holidays, happy knitting!
Barrie
barriet@netcom.com

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