Nålbinding and What to Buy
Vesterheim's three-day mitten class with Melba Granlund and North House's with Madison's Larry Schmitt. What nålbinding is and how old it is, the flat needle and the wool that works, suppliers, and a three-day plan to a pair of fulled mittens.
- 3 min
- 5 steps
- 2 questions
- Lesson 198 of 204
In this lesson
- What nålbinding is
- The needle
- The wool
- Try it
Picking up where you left off.
What you need
| Have it | Material | Spec | Qty | Where to get it |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NeedleOr whittle one from juniper, lilac, or rowan, as Schmitt’s classes do. | A flat wooden or bone needle about 8-12 cm long with a large eye | 1 | Mielke's Fiber Arts | |
| WoolSuperwash wool can’t be spit-spliced or fulled. | Thick single-ply or loosely plied wool that is not superwash: Léttlopi, Álafosslopi, or Rauma Vamsegarn | About 200-300 g for a pair of mittens (estimate) | The Woolery | |
| Second color optional | The same wool in a contrasting color for the cuff edge | 1 skein | Ingebretsen's, Minneapolis | |
| Pattern book optional | Larry Schmitt, Mittens, Mittens, Mittens! | 1 | Mielke's Fiber Arts |
Tools
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The plan
-
Day 1
Needle and stitch
- Whittle or sand a needle about 10 cm long
- The thumb-loop start and the Oslo chain; spit splicing
- Join a ring; practice rows connected to the last
-
Day 2
The hands
- Measure the hand; outline it, adding 1 cm for fulling
- Rosette top; increase to about 45 stitches
- Work both mittens to the thumb; leave a 4 cm opening
-
Day 3
Thumbs and fulling
- Cuffs; finish at the cuff
- Work the thumbs up from the openings
- Full in warm water; shape and dry
This module reconstructs two three-day mitten classes: Vesterheim’s Nålbinding Mittens with Melba Granlund, for beginners and returning students, with museum garments to study and written mitten instructions 1, and North House’s with Larry Schmitt of Madison, which shapes a Scandinavian work mitten and has students make their own needles 2. The class plans aren’t published; this follows the sources cited.
What nålbinding is
Nålbinding builds a fabric of loops with a single short needle and short lengths of yarn, pulling the whole length through every stitch. It is far older than knitting: finds run from a Mesolithic net at Tybrind Vig to the 10th-century Coppergate sock from York, the Mammen grave in Denmark (970/71), and a medieval mitten from Oslo, and the craft is red-listed in Norway today 3. Sweden’s Åsle mitten is dated 1510 to 1640 4.
The National Museum of Finland’s mittens made in Sonkajärvi in 1958, 26 cm long, came with their needle and a starting sample 5.
The wool
Granlund recommends “any thick, single-ply woolen yarns like Lamb’s Pride bulky, Alafoss Lopi, or Roving yarns… Loosely plied woolen yarns such as Rauma Vams” 1. It must not be superwash, which can’t be spliced or fulled 4. Work with about an arm span of yarn at a time, joined by spit splicing 7. Léttlopi is $7.75 for 50 g at the Woolery 9; Rauma Vamsegarn is $9 at Ingebretsen’s in Minneapolis 10.
Quick check
Nålbinding uses short lengths joined by felting the ends together.
Quick check
Every stitch pulls the whole length through, so it’s kept short and joined often.
Try it
Pull an arm span of your wool between your hands and roll the two cut ends of two pieces together with a little water, as in lesson 2. If they hold when tugged, the wool will work; if they slide apart, it’s superwash or too smooth.
Lesson complete
Nice work.
Sources for this lesson
- 1Nålbinding Mittens (archived). Vesterheim Folk Art School (Wayback Machine). verifiedMelba Granlund, Sep 6-8, 2024, for beginners and returning students; needle $10, materials $10 for practice yarns and written mitten instructions; bring a measuring tape. Yarn: 'any thick, single-ply woolen yarns like Lamb's Pride bulky, Alafoss Lopi, or Roving yarns… Loosely plied woolen yarns such as Rauma Vams.' Museum garments studied hands-on.
- 2Nålbinding Mittens. North House Folk School. verifiedLarry Schmitt of Madison, three days, beginner; shaping a Scandinavian work mitten, finishing, folklore; students make their own needles.
- 3Ellen Hagen. Needle binding: a short guide. Museum of Archaeology, University of Stavanger (via National Museum of Ireland). verifiedNålbinding is red-listed as a craft in Norway; finds from a Mesolithic net at Tybrind Vig to the 10th-century Coppergate sock, the Mammen grave (970/71), and a medieval Oslo mitten; to make a heel or thumb 'simply jump over a row or area.'
- 4Nålbindning. Swedish Wikipedia. verifiedA flat needle about 10 cm; yarn must not be superwash, which can't be spliced or fulled. The Åsle mitten from Västergötland is dated 1510-1640; Lund mitten before 1400.
- 5Neulakintaat (nålbound mittens), Sonkajärvi 1958. National Museum of Finland (Finna). verifiedMade in February 1958 in Sonkajärvi, Savo, by Riitta Stiina Turpeinen; 26 x 10-13 cm; with the needle and a starting sample. CC BY 4.0.
- 6Sanna-Mari Pihlajapiha. Needles for nålbinding. Neulakintaat.fi. verifiedFinnish needles usually 8-12 cm long (old ones up to 15), about the length of a forefinger, 0.4-1 cm wide, edge 2-3 mm; juniper, lilac, rowan, and other woods. The same site explains Hansen notation, published by Egon Hansen in NESAT III in 1987 (U under, O over, / needle turns; Oslo UO/UOO F1, Mammen UOO/UUOO F2), spit splicing (fan the plies 2-3 cm, moisten, roll 10-20 seconds; superwash won't felt), and mittens started at the top with a rosette of about 8 stitches in thick yarn, increased to about 45, a thumb opening about 4 cm, and 1 cm added all round for fulling.
- 7Linda Falkenstein. A stitch in time. Isthmus (Madison). 2020. verifiedLarry Schmitt's classes start with whittling a needle; yarn about an arm span long; getting the motion takes '20 minutes to two-and-a-half days'; spit-splice 100% wool.
- 8Wooden Nalbinding Needle. Mielke's Fiber Arts. verifiedA 4 in blunt wooden needle with a large eye, $6; a bone needle $6.50; Larry Schmitt's Mittens, Mittens, Mittens! ($26, 66 pages, four stitches, six patterns).
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