When most people start knitting, they often begin with garter stitch. This was the case for me. I was in grade school. It was the 1970s and I got a kit complete with hot pink chunky yarn and oversized lime green needles. My first project? A square potholder.

Flash forward about four decades when I discover the work of American wire artist and sculptor Ruth Asawa. I was gobsmacked by her creations. When I saw a demonstration of her stitch technique, I thought, I can scale that down for jewelry design.

It didn’t take long before I was knitting garter stitch squares and turning them into necklaces and earrings.

Interesting factoid, knitting is not indigenous to North America but was believed to have been brought here by Basque whalers hundreds of years ago. The oldest knitting remanent found on this continent was a whaler’s knitted cap.

In the tutorial, I show you how to make a simple nine stitch wire knitted pendant. A list of tools and materials is in the description box below the tutorial on YouTube.

It takes a foot or so of 20g wire (I use bronze in the sample). Tutorials are also available to show how to hang this pendant on leather cord, or if you want to make two squares and make earrings, there is a tutorial to show you how to do that too.

Knitting and now wire knitting have become important traditions in my life. I hope you’ll join me!