I keep seeing really lovely beaded necklaces/ bracelets that say they have been knitted. So what would I need to make one - Im guessing wire and beads and the endy bits. How on earth do you knit one - are they quick to do and where would I find out more?

Use cheap knitting needles (the wire destroys them) very thin gauge wire (you can get this in Hobby Craft)

Its essentially knitting lace - even garter stitch looks lovely on big needles in wire. Thread a few beads here and there and then google for finishing tips for jewellery - you can get all the findings in Hobby craft too.

Is that any help?

Spotted something called a wonder knitter on www.clover-euro.de. I suppose it's just a french knitter but, according to the bumpf you can do jewellry on it. Don't know if it would be any use.

Have a look at Rosemary Hill's profile (http://www.ravelry.com/designers/rosemary-hill) on Ravelry. She's the designer of Muir, but also of some knitted bead and wire jewellery published in Knitty (all the patterns are linked to from her profile, so it's quicker just to quote that here). The Knitty patterns appear to be fairly good intros to the techniques, and there's also further info on her blog (http://rosemarygoround.blogspot.com/).

I discovered her connection to jewellery patterns as well as Muir and Ice Queen not through Knitty (though I've seen those patterns before, Bauble for example), but because I'd just queued a gorgeous bracelet pattern of hers. The book in which the pattern's featured wasn't on the UK Amazon the last I time checked, though the shipping from Amazon.com is reasonable and swift if you're interested.

The AntiCraft also has some wire knitting tips (http://www.theanticraft.com/archive/samhain05/wireknitting.htm).

I've got a book on crochet jewellery that I'll bring along tonight for your perusal.

I did these, as littleblue says simple stitches can look quite effective. The knitted one was done on 2.5 mm needles and the crochet one with a 2 ish mm hook (I can't actually crochet though, just in case it's not obvious - it's my take on crochet!), both with 0.4mm soft silver wire. The stuff from hobbycraft is good but if it's silver plated, it won't have as long a life as the 'proper' silver stuff.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/yorkie_bar/2358853311/in/set-72157604551297195/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/yorkie_bar/2358852279/in/set-72157604551297195/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/yorkie_bar/3079899146/in/set-72157604551297195/

'Crochet' one has since ben finished with a button but didn't like the buttons on the knitted one though so have taken them off and just wear it as a plain cuff, laced with black ribbon.