DIY: Crochet Chain Necklaces

I'm a bit in love with this technique. It's popping up all over the internet and I really love the contrast of hard metallic chain with soft yarn. You could make a whole bunch of these to complement or contrast with your wardrobe colour palette. (Do you have a wardrobe palette?! Colours that tend to creep into your wardrobe time and time again?) The customization options are endless....

Anyhow, all you need here is an old chain necklace, a crochet hook that fits through the links in your chain, and some yarn of some description. I used embroidery cotton because it suited the size of my chain and I already had some in my stash. But you could use silk for a bit of luxury; and on chunkier chains you could use delicious merino knitting yarn. Yum! All we're going to use here is a single crochet stitch. But you could experiment with double/treble crochet or even some of the more decorative crochet stitches... If you've never crocheted before, (although I know alot of you do!) trust me, it's easy to learn; and you'll be totally hooked (excuse the gratuitous pun, totally intended!!)

1. Start as with any basic crochet; with a slipknot/loop on your hook. Then pass the hook through the first link in your chain.
2. Yarn over the end over your hook as pictured
3. Pull through the chain link so you have 2 loops on your hook
4. Yarn over your hook again and pull through the 2 loops you had on your hook. First single crochet done!
5. Repeat in all links of the chain, right to the end.
6. Cut the yarn so you have a short tail. Open up the loop you have left on your crochet hook and pass the end of the yarn tail through it.
7. Remove your hook and pull the yarn tail  tight so the "knot" sits snug against your chain.
8. At both ends of your chain you'll have a yarn tail. Put a small blob of superglue on both knotted ends. You want it to run a little bit onto the yarn tail too.
9. Once the glue is set hard, snip off the yarn tail, et voila!

My chain didn't have any clasps so I added a little extender chain, a clasp, and a little drop at the back. But if you're working with a necklace that you already have, of course you don't need to worry about that part.  I also decorated my necklaces with some little bead drops that I made by threading the beads onto jewellery head pins and making a little loop at the top. Great little tute here for making beaded drops...

As you can see, you can create loads of different variations. I was limited to using the materials and colours that were in the pile of jewelery I was challenged to remake. But imagine these with turquoise, cerise, red ; chunkier chain in matt black, pewter, gold; and any manner of drops. Basically, just let your imagination go mad!

If you do end up making these, PLEASE let me know! I would LOVE to see what you come up with!