I am looking forward to nalbinding in public this coming September 1st on the tenth anniversary of Worldwide Nalbind in Public day. Exciting plans are beginning to form. Find your string and get your needle ready.
The International Nalbinding Day or Worldwide Nalbind in Public Day was started in 2016. I missed the first few years, but here’s a review of what I’ve been up to for the last few.
In 2024, I had the pleasure of nalbinding in two venues: online on Zoom in our weekly Nalbinding Get Togethers with friends on three continents and later at a wedding in a beautiful venue. Facebook has also kind enough to remind me of where I was nalbinding on previous Nalbind in Public days.
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For this week’s Nalbound Object of the Week, I’m delighted to be able to bring you evidence of the current tradition of nalbinding in Northern Ghana. I’d had hints that the technique might be found in West Africa, but nothing Ghanaian specific. Thus, imagine my excitement when I came across an example in the Accra Arts Center. I was initially concerned it might be an import, but seeing several others in Cape Coast and with some additional information obtained during bargaining, we’ve confirmed they are a product of Northern Ghana.
Object: Ghanaian bag with coiled base
Description: A cross-body bag with a solid bottom. All the versions I saw were various stripes of natural color, deep purple, and dark blue. This one had some purple going around the mouth and up the strap.
Dated to: 2024. Collected on 21 October, 2024 in the Accra Art Center
Find location: Accra Arts Center, in a stall selling goods from Northern Ghana. The sellers spoke Degaare, which indicates they are of the Dagaaba/Dagaati people. Additional examples were also spotted in a market stall in Cape Coast.
Material: a plant fiber, possibly jute, in natural, purple, and deep blue. The purple is water soluble and can transfer.
Stitch(es) used: Main body is Z-crossed Simple Looping, F1 O. There’s a bit of Cross-knit Looping at the center base and Coiling: Z-crossed Simple Looping around a bundle of carried sticks. Further examination is needed for the stitch around the mouth. (Stitch determinations by Anne Marie Decker)
Inventory number: N/A
Current location: Anne Marie Decker’s personal collection
Photographs:
View of the stripes and connections. Photo credit: Anne Marie DeckerCloseup of the base showing the carried stiffener material. Photo credit: Anne Marie DeckerThe base of the bag is stiffened. Photo credit: Anne Marie DeckerAdditional details of the bag in Anne Marie Decker’s collection. Another bag seen in Cape Coast. Photo credit: Anne Marie DeckerMore bags seen in Cape Coast. Photo credit: Anne Marie DeckerThe handles of the bags in Cape Coast. Photo credit: Anne Marie DeckerThe cross-knit looping start before the stiffened section. Photo credit: Anne Marie DeckerMouth and handle attachment. Photo credit: Anne Marie DeckerDetails of the four similar bags seen in a market stall in Cape Coast.
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One of the best things about researching any topic is that continued research will always bring further insights; be that greater clarity on a particular detail, proof of a particular theory, proof that a particular hypothesis was wrong, correcting a technique misidentification, new design details, new stitches, new dating, and more artifacts to examine. Hypotheses get developed and sometimes they are supported and possibly proven. Sometimes they are disproved and new hypotheses are born.
Add to that, things that are true of our modern esthetics in the craft may prove to be constant throughout the historical record, or they may prove to be recent inventions. Care should always be taken to ensure that we are not making assumptions, even based on our prior knowledge, and allowing our biases to hide the new data. Insights may come from the most unexpected sources and even experts can be proven wrong. I have had thousands of theories that have been made or dashed with arrival of new data. It’s exciting!
I’ve discussed several examples of this process on this blog previously,1 but today, I’d like to add a few additional examples.
Direction of work:
Nalbinding is predominately worked left to right, regardless of whether the work is dependent from the working row or hung above. Both of which leave telltale, but different, signs in the resultant fabric. Obviously, there are exceptions: lefthanded people often work in the opposite direction, and of course, there is the option of an esthetic choice to work in the non-dominant direction for a variety of reasons; including opposing spirals or flat work for example.
So the question becomes, how often do we see nalbinding worked in the non-dominant direction, when, where, and can we tell why? This is not an easy question to answer as so little research published has included this important detail about the artifacts.
Several of the artifacts that initially appeared to be worked in the non-dominant direction have turned out to be more likely found with the technical back to the outside. For example the Egyptian sock now in the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh.2 This could be accomplished by working in the non-dominant direction, but is more likely simply a case of the creator or wearer deciding that they preferred the texture of the technical back to the outside. In the case of the sock in Edinburgh, it seems a common trait of socks made in that particular stitch. In the case of the pair of socks from Sudan,3 only one is “inside out.” This could be a case of the wearer not noticing, the person dressing the dead not noticing, or some cultural reason of which I am not aware.
In both cases, and in fact in all of the 115 or so known Egyptian socks, the socks are worked from the toe up to the ankle. The hats from the tip down. Up until very recently, all of the pre-17th century handcoverings I’ve examined have been worked from the tip of the fingers to the wrist. And yet, last year I had the opportunity to examine a beautiful glove from medieval Kalmar that surprised me in several ways. One was the particular stitch used as I had never seen its like before. And the other, was that it was clearly worked from the wrist towards the fingers. More research as to the direction of work of thumbs (and fingers on gloves), especially in relation to the associated handcovering, is desperately needed.
Wrist Bumps:
17th century mitten with a tar stain from Copenhagen . National Museum of Denmark Photo credit: Anne Marie DeckerCloseup of the wrist bump on the 17th century mitten from Copenhagen. Photo credit: Anne Marie Decker
I once had a idea that wrists that showed a prominent bump in the spiral might have been started at the wrist. Examinations of artifacts has consistently proven me wrong so far on that hypothesis. It was my modern esthetics that had given the the incorrect impression that the maker would always smooth out the final spiral.
Now, we do have examples where the final spiral ending is rather smooth. The Oslo mitten gives the appearance of a smooth ending. However, looking at the rows above it, one can see that it has been pulled and distorted such that the result is the edge currently looks like it was smoothly finished, but in fact it was a rather short transition that now significantly distorts the row to which it connects.
Oslo Mitten C28155 on display at the Historical Museum in Oslo Photo credit: Anne Marie DeckerDetail of the Oslo Mitten C28155 showing the short transition of the final row. Photo credit: Anne Marie Decker
Lace:
Another example. In 2004, I was approached by someone with a lace shawl they had that they wanted to know if it could be nalbound or not. The pictures they sent showed that an individual row had a structure we know can be produced by a particular nalbinding stitch, but the connections between rows were unclear, so we were missing important secondary construction details that can be vital to understand which particular technique produced the particular structure fabric.
I allowed as how it was possible that it might be nalbound, but that if it was that brought up many additional questions that would have to be answered. Such as, how would the connections be made in such an openwork structure without falling apart? In 2005, another was brought to my attention. My friend, Virginia Miller, became quite interested in the lace shawls and set about trying to find their source.
Around this time, many other examples of this particular type of shawl were apparently being examined at a variety of locations. Others were recognizing the structure of the chain as being a possible nalbound structure, but the specifics of the secondary constructions details that would reveal their true construction technique would not be recognized until the details of a related structural cross-over were discussed.4 These details show that there are a significant number of miss-identified examples in museums around the world.
Crocheted chain lace shawl from Turkey gifted to me by Virginia Miller in 2012. Photo credit: Anne Marie DeckerDetail of the chain lace shawl from Turkey showing the crocheted connection. Photo credit: Anne Marie Decker
Virginia, having tracked down the origin of at least some of the shawls, kindly managed to procure one for me. Being able to examine one in detail up close has led to an understanding that allows me to understand details that while I had seen them before, had not revealed their relevance. Now, given sufficiently clear photos, it is easy to determine that these shawls are a form of crocheted chain lace. Rather similar in structure to the earliest forms of crochet that been identified.5
Another example of this structure’s construction technique being misidentified is a lovely pair of baby booties in the V&A Collection. https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O136095/pair-of-bootees-unknown/ The Simple Looping in cream on the ball at the top of the tassel at the ankles is a form of nalbinding (and also a form of needlelace), but the green lace are these open worked crocheted chains. Once again, it’s the connections between the chains that reveal the technique used.
Hypotheses come and go, but that is in many ways the fun part of research. We are always learning new things. Theories become proven. Hypotheses are dashed and formed again. All of which leads to a better understanding of the entire corpus of both nalbound textiles and related looped textiles, their origins, transmission, development, traditional uses, and influences on the modern craft.
Speaking of exciting new opportunities and artifacts to examine, I have recently learned of new excavated socks to add to the corpus of nalbinding that have never been examined before. Unfortunately, my travel budget to go see them is rather dry. If you’ve enjoyed my research and would like to be a part of my support team, I sincerely appreciate any assistance you are willing to send my way. You can use the one time donation link in the menu or become a monthly Patron. Patrons on Patreon receive priority requests, early access previews, and occasional extra details.
Peru and Egypt have both excellent preservation characteristics and extensive excavation histories, so I often return to these locations for nalbound artifacts. However, for this week’s Nalbound Object of the Week, I’d like to explore an item that reflects a different tradition. While we don’t know much about archeological examples, the Arabian Peninsula has evidence of a very strong traditional usage of nalbinding. زرابيل zarbool,1 or sand socks and camel muzzles2 seem to be the predominant items made with nalbinding there. This particular pair of Omani Sand Socks, I had the pleasure of seeing while they were on display in the Socks & Stockings exhibition at the Textile Research Centre in Leiden, Netherlands in 2019.
Omani Sand Socks as on display in the Socks & Stockings exhibition at the Textile Research Centre, Leiden in October 2019. Photo: Anne Marie Decker
Object: Sand socks زرابيل
Description: The socks are worked from the toe up in alternating stripes of white and black. The stripes are two rows deep and the color is carried from one row up to the next color change. The heel is a wedge heel. There is a slit in the ankle with ties at the top to close it. The bottom showing in this image shows the pads that are worked onto the sock starting from the mid-foot and sewn down on three sides. The socks are 12.6 inches long by 5.5 inches wide (32 cm long by 14 cm wide3).
Heel and toe pads sewn on TRC 2018.2807a-b Photo credit: Anne Marie Decker 2019Close up of the slit reversals TRC 2018.2807a-b Photo credit: Anne Marie Decker 2019The black yarn being carried across the white rows to the next black row TRC 2018.2807a-b Photo credit: Anne Marie Decker 2019Gauge is 2 – 2.5 rows to the inch depending on where it was measured. TRC 2018.2807a-b Photo credit: Anne Marie Decker 2019
Acknowledgements: My thanks to Diana Lankhof and Lies van de Wege for making it possible for me to visit the Socks & Stockings exhibition at TRC. My timing was soo very tight and they graciously arranged to open an hour early so that I could have time to examine the nalbound sand socks and see the displays.
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The Arabic term for camel muzzles or mouth coverings is possibly transliterated as lisama or lasama according to this video brought to my attention by Susan Elizabeth Aiken: https://youtu.be/YcKxQ0sGpr4?si=G5uO28Y9AR1lD9RY Accessed 7 June 2024 ↩︎
For this Nalbound Object of the Week, we look to the Pech people of Northeastern Honduras. Now in the Ethnographic collections of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University, we find this lovely open worked nalbound bag in alternating light and darker brown stripes.
Description: The bag starts at the base in the lighter brown and is worked for three rows with some increases visible. Followed by two rows of the darker brown and then three, three, three, and two alternating. The bag is recorded as being 19 5/16 inches high by 14 15/16 inches wide with a thickness of 1 5/16 inches (49 x 38 x 3.4cm). The opening shows no signs of decreasing the row height or otherwise finishing the mouth of the bag. The fabric builds in an clockwise S type spiral implying it was likely worked with the fabric suspended above while being worked.
Dated to: No date provided.1 The bag is part of the Ethnographic collections, so possibly collected sometime within the last one hundred and fifty years.
Find location (Continent, current country, original culture): Plaintain River, Honduras3
Material: The online catalog only describes the material as fiber.4 It may possibly Maguey (Agave sisalana f. armata) or Aechmea as both are noted as being used by the Pech to make bags.5
Stitch(es) used: B2 U/OU as read from the technical front of the work with crosses up. (Stitch determination by Anne Marie Decker based on .TIFF photograph provided by the museum for research purposes.) Given that the clockwise S type spiral direction of work reads right to left in that orientation combined with the B2 connection, this bag was likely worked with the fabric above the hands instead of suspended below. (If worked dependent (unlikely), then this would likely be indicative of being worked left-handed.) So in working, with the fabric suspended and growing down, the direction of work would read left to right, as is most frequent and the stitch would be worked as F2 O/UO crosses down.
Please note that sharing to other venues will likely be intermittent. If you wish to receive these each week, please remember to follow the blog. Patrons on Patreon receive early access previews, occasional extra details, and priority requests.
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
Please note that sharing to other venues will likely be intermittent. If you wish to receive these each week, please remember to follow the blog. Patrons on Patreon receive early access previews, occasional extra details, and priority requests.
This week’s Nalbound Object of the Week comes from Central Africa. There are quite a few of these beautifully fine Prestige Capes from the former Kingdom of Kongo now in museums around the world. I was honored to be able to examine this particular one closely. Until you are in the presence of one, it is hard to comprehend just how delicate and fine this complex compound nalbinding is; and then you add in the openwork patterning. Definitely breathtaking.
Photo Credit: Textile Museum Acquisition – Public Domain
Description: A stunningly fine raffia cape worked in a trebly intralaced compound nalbinding stitch with an openwork zigzag pattern. The neck opening has a layer of Simple Looping around the edge. The outer edges have raffia fringe knotted onto them. The front and back rows have strings knotted on every few stitches from which the handle-like tassels are suspended. This cape has one both front and back. Some also have them off the sides.
There is an illustration of an etching, based on a photograph, that was made ca. 1880 of a Chief in Full Dress Attire wearing a nkutu on page 73 of Kongo: Power and Majesty.
Stitch(es) used: B1 UU/OO/UU/OOU as determined by Anne Marie Decker during her examination of the object on 14 June 2023. The row heights are very fine for this compound of a nalbinding stitch; around 5/8ths of an inch. There is a single row of Z-crossed Simple Looping, F1 O, around the neck opening.
The Textile Museum specifies that the structure is “looping,” but not the specific stitch used.7 This type of cape has also been misidentified as sprang8 in other examples, but they are not.
So far, the only other place where we see other stitches in the same trebly intralaced family of stitches is in the Omani stitch sock as described by Peter Collingwood (the only example of that particular stitch out of Oman that has been found so far).
Please note that sharing to other venues will likely be intermittent. If you wish to receive these each week, please remember to follow the blog. Patrons on Patreon receive early access previews, occasional extra details, and priority requests.
For example, the British Museum’s Af1853,0713.1 lists its technique as sprang: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/E_Af1853-0713-1, but also provides clear and close photographs that show it is worked in exactly the same interlinking nalbinding stitch as this one in The Textile Museum. ↩︎
Four years ago, I first wrote about the nalbound camel muzzles of the Arabian peninsula. Today, just one day shy, I am bouncing with excitement as I hold two examples in my own hands.
Anne Marie Decker holding two Kuwaiti nalbound camel muzzles. (Camels not included.) One is deep blue and deep rose in color. The other is tangerine orange and deep pink.
I have had tendrils out various locations across the Arabian peninsula trying to get one to examine for years, but they had all come back empty. Apparently, camel accoutrement sellers are not on the normal tourist tracks; or even that of city office workers. And yet, the quest has proved amusing enough that people are willing to keep an eye out and now one of those tendrils has returned successful.
Both muzzles have an F2 UOO/UUOO structure corresponding to the nalbinding stitch variant commonly called Mammen. This matches the predominant stitch I could see in those photos that were close enough to see evaluate as reported in More Camel Muzzles.
Thank you to everyone who has listened to me babble on with excitement about this particular continuing tradition of nalbinding; especially to those that have been willing to join the quest. I look forward to being able to examine them closely.
November is Native American Heritage Month here in the U.S. As we celebrate and explore nalbinding as it is found around the world and in many cultures, it does behoove us to remember to have a care that our appreciation does not tip over into appropriation. Many of the cultures that produce nalbinding suffer from the effects of colonialism. Many of the stitches are universally used around the world, but some of the motifs, colorwork, object shaping, and descriptive words have sacred meanings.
Some places have put formal protections in place. For example:
The US Department of Interior’s Indian Arts & Crafts Board provides clarification regarding the Indian Arts and Crafts Act of 1990 (P.L. 101-644) which prohibits misrepresentation by falsely suggesting an item advertised for sale is Indian produced, an Indian product, or the product of a particular Indian or Indian tribe or Indian arts and crafts organization in the marketing of Indian art and craft products within the United States. The penalties for even a first violation are rather steep. https://www.doi.gov/iacb/act
The National Cultural Commission and Investment Promotion Authority of Papua New Guinea issued a joint press release entitled “Caution on the Misuse of Papua New Guinea Traditional Motifs and/or Designs from Traditional Bilum on Textile and Material Fabric.” https://www.facebook.com/107862945033802/photos/a.116069377546492/181536697666426/?type=3 “Furthermore, it must be made known to the public that “bilum-weaving” is a reserved activity under the Reserved Activities List. This means that only Papua New Guineans can weave bilums and sell bilums in the country. Local communities into bilum weaving should begin to take ownership of the bilum weaving knowledge and skills within thier own communities and begin to document their traditional design.”
In general, the formal protections relate to the sale of cultural heritage items. Nonetheless it behoves us as we learn more of how nalbinding is used around the world, the cominalites of stitches and uses, to understand its importance to many cultures, so that we may better appreciate it without appropriating items of cultural and sacred significance.
Festive Koteka from Papua New Guinea on display in The Icelandic Phallological Museum in Reykjavik, Iceland. Photo taken by Anne Marie Decker August 30, 2022.
Traditional forms of nalbinding are used for a wide variety of purposes around the world. One area with a strong continuous tradition of nalbinding is the highlands of Papua New Guinea and West Papua, Indonesia. While one is most likely to be familiar with the Bilums from the region, another usage of nalbinding is found covering some Koteka.
A Koteka is a traditional penis sheath worn by some ethnic groups of Papua; mainly in the highlands. One may also see the koteka referred to as a horim. While often made of a particular gourd, the ones of most interest to this blog are the ones that have an outer layer of nalbound textile.
I have not yet had the opportunity to travel to Papua to see the amazing amount and variety of nalbinding that their traditions have and continue to produce. I do hope to make it to their annual Bilum Festival and Gala someday. And yet, Papuan nalbinding has been collected by colonizers and purchased by modern tourists for centuries and thus found its way into some of the most unexpected places. So much so, that when I once again find nalbinding where I didn’t expect it, I’m not surprised to often find that the example in question is Papuan.
On my most recent trip to Iceland, where I was honored to be able to examine the mitten from Arneiðarstaðir in Iceland, I also took the opportunity to go to several other museums. I picked up a new nalbinding needle at the Saga Museum. But having entirely forgotten about nalbound koteka covers, I was rather pleased and surprised to find nalbinding in The Icelandic Phallological Museum. Probably the last place I expected to find nalbinding. Even more so than finding nalbinding in a Ripley’s Believe it or Not.
The Festive Koteka in The Icelandic Phallological Museum uses both the Simple Looping variant (often called Blanket or Buttonhole Stitch) and a spaced and staggered Cross-Knit Looping variant. The Danai tribe Koteka shown in the Ripley’s Believe it or Not! video has the Simple Looping variant on the sheath itself and what looks like a compound variant (undetermined) in the strap.
