Wyr Knittr, a machine allowing you to knit with wire, is getting poor reviews across the board, by folks purchasing this product and even experienced jewelry makers.
As an alternative, you can knit with wire without a machine. There are wooden tools with pegs available, OR you can just use your regular knitting needles and very fine gauge wire. A couple of books are on the market about wire knitting, available at those big online book retailers.
Ah, this is good news - you’ve just saved me some money. I was actually looking at it online the other day and was intrigued by it.
I’ll stick to the old fashioned method of needles when I finally break down and go to the local bead store for wire. Anyone know which works better, wood or metal needles, in a case like this?
I’d go with the needles that you feel most comfortable using…you’re going to have enough of a challenge ahead of you before you start using needles that you’re not used to! hehe!
I’m good with either, but I’m thinking about how the wire will interact with wood material vs. metal. I don’t want to score up my nice birch needles - so I’m thinking maybe the metal Susan Bates’ handmedowns I have from an old friend might just do the trick. I also have several metal sets of dpns - mmm… can you say, “beaded juliet cap”? That would be sooo much easier than wrestling with a tatting shuttle (you laugh, but I actually tried that several years ago. The project ended with much swearing and flinging of wire.)
Down here, we wouldn’t think of using a Wyr Knitting machine…
In Australia they have been teaching wire knitting & crochet with metal needles/hooks for the last 12 months. It’s been a really big thing the past few craft shows.
I guess because we don’t have a lot of stuff readily available to us down here (ie: we have to WAIT for things to be ‘re-released’ after you see it on the 'net for two years) that we just sort of ‘get on with it’ and do it manually
:woot: