What is viking knit
Historical background
What is viking knit ?Viking knit is an ancient form of circular wire weaving also known as the trichinopoly chain. The term chain is misleading because there are no separate links. The chain is formed with a length of successively looped wire resulting in a long tube which is then stretched.
It’s known as the Viking knit because several archaeological finds dating back to about the 7th century AD were located in the Scandinavian countries like Norway and Sweden.
The Viking knit is still popular today. It’s not a particularly difficult technique but it is labor intensive. It is to a certain extent, a forgiving technique because you do not have to do perfect work. There is a very comforting “rhythm” to this technique akin to the repetitive crafts like knitting, tatting and crochet . So some people really enjoy making Viking knit jewelry.
“Viking knitting” is not actually knitting in the way you might think (i.e. with two needles), but is actually a type of weaving. Chains are made from long pieces of wire (8′-12′) that are worked by hand into interconnecting loops. For those who knit with yarn, the connected loops look like twisted knitting (knit through back loop).
