Tuesday, September 18, 2012

when knit night turns into....

...learn how to make chainmaille night!


One of the guys who attends our "knit night" from time to time (and I say "knit night" in quotes because we often have crochet, beading, and jewelry making going on!), led us in a quickie class in learning how to make byzantine chain.


That's me on the big rings.
Here's a sample of a more experienced bit of work on smaller rings.


Fun!

Mike was awesome at teaching us how to do this. Lots of little tips and tricks, very patient and easy to understand.  If you live in the Bay Area and ever want to take a class, look him up at Just Bead It! in Concord.  Woot!

Playing with all the little rings is a little fiddly for my taste as far as hobbies go, and I'm not quite sure if it's portable enough for me for me to get toooo deep into it (plus I am just the type of klutz to knock over a tray of rings and have them scatter everywhere), but I could see myself playing around with this stuff for awhile and perhaps making a few of things as gifts. As fiddly as it is to make, I just adore the end result.  I'd love to make a little bag or a dragonscale bracelet or something as a greater goal.  It's a neat skill!

1 comments:

jodi said...

I used to have a bus driver friend who would bring his little bucket of rings to work and sit and put them together on his breaks (and then take the whole thing home and hammer, drill and rivet every link because he was one of those totally dedicated and slightly cray artists). I'd get on the bus at the end of my shift at the mall, sit in the chatting-with-the-driver seat at the very front, pull out my knitting and join him.