Nalbinding

What it is

Nalbinding (Norwegian nålebinding, “needle binding”) makes fabric from loops with a single needle. It predates both knitting and crochet ¹. The difference: in nalbinding the whole working length of yarn is pulled through each loop ¹. That means:

• you work with short lengths, usually under about 2 meters, joined end to end ¹;
• the fabric is dense, warm, and elastic;
• it doesn’t unravel if cut or worn through.

Materials

• Wool that will felt: short lengths are joined by felting the moistened ends together, so the join disappears ¹. Superwash wool won’t felt.
• A flat, blunt needle with a large eye, traditionally bone, wood, or antler ¹, about 7-10 cm long.

Stitches

Dozens of stitches exist, named for the archaeological finds they match: Oslo, Mammen, York, Dalby, and more ¹. Most start with the Oslo stitch, a good all-purpose stitch.

Stitches are worked around the thumb, which holds the current loops and gauges their size - the “thumb method” ¹. Each new loop goes through one or more loops held on the thumb and one or more in the previous row.

Hansen notation, developed in 1990, writes a stitch as the sequence of how the needle passes loops: U for under, O for over ¹. The Oslo stitch is written UO/UOO - under one, over one, then under one, over two (connected to the previous round).

History

The oldest known nalbound fragment, from Nahal Hemar Cave, dates to about 6500 BCE ¹. In Scandinavia it was the everyday way to make mittens, socks, and hats into the 20th century. The Coppergate sock, Viking-age wool from York, was worked from the toe in circular rounds ¹. The craft nearly died out by the 1950s, but historians and craftspeople revived it ¹.

A first project

1. Cut about 2 meters of feltable wool and thread the needle.
2. Make a starting chain of Oslo stitches long enough to go around your hand.
3. Join into a ring and work around in a spiral.
4. When the yarn runs short, felt in a new length: fray both ends, overlap, wet, and roll firmly between your palms.
5. A mitten: work the hand tube, leave a gap for the thumb, decrease to close the top, then pick up stitches around the gap for the thumb.

What to take from this

Nalbinding loops fabric with a single needle, pulling the whole short length of yarn through every loop, so it’s dense, elastic, and unravel-proof. Use feltable wool, splice lengths by felting, work around the thumb starting with the Oslo stitch (UO/UOO in Hansen notation), and try a mitten worked in the round, like the Viking-age Coppergate sock.