Maintaining a flat spiral in nalbinding can be challenging. There are limited instructional resources compared to knitting and crochet. Nalbinders often use instinctive strategies for increasing or decreasing stitches, considering loop angles. Proper alignment helps avoid ruffles.
Maintaining a flat spiral in nalbinding is something that people often find tricky in the beginning. Other looping techniques, such as knitting and crochet, have had many instructions published on the number of stitches to add in each round in order to build a flat circle at a variety of gauges. Nalbinding does not have that wealth of instructional history yet.
Many nalbinders rely on more instinctive increasing strategies, given the lack of pre-tested and published instructions. There are numeric strategies that one can use to help you determine the number of stitches, but they are affected by grist of yarn,1 stitch choice, and gauge used. While it can be a helpful guide, translating from the instructions for its looped cousins can also present challenges as they are often written for rounds, not spirals.
I tend to fall in the instinctive category of nalbinders. If it needs to get bigger, add more stitches. Needs to be smaller, decrease. But it’s not entirely just intuitive. I do pay conscious attention to the angles of my working loops in relation to the growing textile and that informs my decisions.
Specifically, I compare the angle at which my thumb loop intersects the line from the center of the textile through my connection point (where I take the next connection stitch).
When the thumb loop leans away from the center line, it needs an increase to keep the spiral fabric flat. When it is parallel to or just leaning away slightly, no increase is needed. Just take a regular stitch. If the thump loop crosses the center line, you have too many increases and likely need a decrease or two to avoid ruffling your fabric. It’s best to always stay just not quite parallel and never cross the line unless a ruffled fabric is what you are aiming for.
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From 1872 CE we get this week’s Nalbound Object sewn by P. Nilsson’s daughter in Äspö in Skåne Sweden:1 the remains of a beautifully colored singlad ball.
Description: Not much of the nalbound exterior remains, but what does remain shows colorwork in multiple patterns involving two colors being used in the same row in several places. The ball is 6.5 cm in diameter2; divided into 8 sections, each worked from the edges into the center. The center is presumed to be cork, wrapped with possibly flax cord.3 It was then covered in course cloth, partitioned into eights and then the Simple Looping outer layer was applied.
Material: The nalbinding was worked in multiple colors of wool.5
Stitch(es) used: Z-crossed Simple Looping, F1 O (determination from photo by Anne Marie Decker) called “langettstygn”6 [langett stitch] in Swedish
Singlade balls are very similar in concept and style to Temari balls from Japan. However, Temari balls primarily use wrapped patterns, while Singlade balls are worked in the Simple Looping structure that can be considered a variant of Nalbinding when creating a fabric, but embroidery when worked into the ball base as seen in some of the more complicated modern designs.
In 1932 Mina Lundberg of Gävle, Uppland, Sweden gave this ball she used in her childhood in the 2nd half of the 19th century to the Upplandsmuseet. It is made with a center made of a broken celluloid ball with peas in it. It otherwise made in the same way as the old catalogue records that peas would be put in a goose’s throat, one end stuck in the other, that was then wrapped in yarn and the singlade cover worked over it in buttonhole stitches. https://digitaltmuseum.se/011023861906/boll
Some of the wide variety of patterns that can be worked in Simple Looping on Singlade balls. Photo from a class that was taught at Brodericaféet på Regionmuseet i Skåne in 2018.
A pair of Singlad boll by Zadig Art purchased in the Kulturen gift shop while I was in Lund in 2023 to examine the mitten. I was so excited to find traditional nalbinding available. I had heard of the Skånsk tradition of singlad balls, but hadn’t seen them in person. The yellow and brown one on the left rattles. Photo: Anne Marie Decker
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My original plans to participate in the International Nalbinding in Public Day* this year were waylaid by Hurricane Ida working its way North. As a substitute, I recorded the first in a series of tips videos that I have planned.
In this video I show the simple start I use for nalbinding. I use the base row for Mammen (and Korgen, Müsen etc.) as an example, but it can be used as the base start for a number of variants. I show how to tell which loops are which, how to hold the loops while forming a new stitch, and what movements keep the nalbinding loops in position.
I hope you find it helpful and that today finds you happy, healthy, and warm.
* Today was the sixth annual World Wide International Nalbinding in Public Day
