Nalbinding for Beginners

Pick up a nalbinding needle and you are holding a craft unchanged in eight thousand years. The fabric it produces, dense, warm, and structurally interlocked, will not unravel even if cut straight through. Vikings wore it through Scandinavian winters. Egyptian traders carried it along desert routes. Peruvian fiber artists still practice it in living tradition today.

Every technique in this book is introduced for a complete beginner. No prior fiber arts experience is needed. The Oslo stitch, the most widely practiced nalbinding stitch in use today, is broken into individually numbered steps so your hands can follow each movement.

Its sister technique, the Mammen stitch, named for a tenth-century Viking burial in Denmark, comes next. The difference in warmth and density between the two is immediately felt. Spit splicing, the traditional knotless method for joining wool lengths mid-project, and shaping techniques for three-dimensional fabric are also covered in full.

Two wearable projects wait at the end of this book: a pair of wrist warmers worked in the round in Oslo stitch, and a shaped hat built from a closed spiral start. A troubleshooting chapter addresses the twelve most common beginner problems before they become frustration.

What You Build Along the Way

• Foundation loops and the thumb technique that anchors every stitch
• Oslo stitch worked flat and in the round
• Mammen stitch for denser, warmer fabric
• Spit splicing for invisible, knot-free yarn joins
• Increases, decreases, and shaping in three dimensions
• Wrist warmers from foundation chain to finished tube
• A shaped hat from spiral start to completed crown