Fresh off the presses, we’ve got a new article that includes quite a few nalbound examples; including one I hadn’t seen before!
“Icelandic mittens from archaeological contexts” by Charlotte Rimstad, Ulla Mannering, Joe W. Walser III, Freyja H. Ó. Sesseljudóttir and Susanne Mueller includes some very nice photographs of several nalbound mittens; the one found in Iceland and several comparables from Norway, Sweden, and Denmark.
When they say click on the image, they mean click on the orange cover image with the pair of mittens on it. That is the only place where the download link is located. I have heard there are some issues with the image loading on some mobile devices.
The shape of the cuff of this week’s Nalbound Object of the Week never really fit with the 10th century dating assigned to it when it was found in the late 19th century. Recent radiocarbon dating reveals that the mitten from Iceland is dated to between the late 15th to early 17th centuries CE which makes much more sense given its shaping. As more research is conducted on nalbinding, we begin to get a clearer picture of its usage, distribution, and dating.
Arnheiðarstöðum Iceland mitten Þjms. 3405 back on display after I examined it. Photo credit: Anne Marie Decker – 1 Sept 2022
Object: Iceland Mitten
Description: The mitten is densely nalbound of a two ply yarn made of wool fibers of two colors and crimps. Overall the mitten is currently a lovely reddish brown, but close examination shows that there are some darker smoother fibers intermittently mixed with lighter brown crimpier fibers bringing to mind the two coated sheep of Iceland. There is some damage to the cuff and a bit near the base of the pinky finger, but overall the mitten is in good condition. The thumb is rather large in comparison to the size of the fingers and lays flat with an extremely neatly worked connection. It is worked from the tip to the cuff. The direction of work spirals in an S slant fashion which gives the appearance of a right to left working direction when observing the current exterior. However, the stitch itself belies the thought that it might have been worked left handed and more likely it has been turned inside out leaving the technical front currently inside.
Dated to: Recently radiocarbon dated to 1480-1640 CE.1 The original dating of the 10th century had been estimated when the mitten was found in the late 19th century and was based on jewelry found nearby.2
Find location: The mitten was found in 1889 when they were digging to build a new house at the farm at Arnheiðarstaðir in the east of Fljótsdalshérað, Iceland.3
Material: Wool4 Two-ply with a diameter of just under 1/8th inch (3mm).5
Stitch(es) used: Oslo F1, F1 UO/UOO6 (Stitch determination by Margrethe Hald. Confirmed by Anne Marie Decker during her examination of the mitten on 1 September 2022)
Gauge: 6 stitches to the inch. 1 and 3/4 rows to the inch.7
Pálsson, Pálmi. 4. Tveir hanzkar in “Um myndir af gripum í forngripa-safninu.” Árbók Hins íslenzka fornleifafélags10. Reykjavik 1895. pgs. 34-35.
Rimstad, Charlotte, Ulla Mannering, Joe Wallace Walser III, and Susanne Mueller. “ICELANDIC MITTENS” Oral Presentation at the European Association of Archaeologists 29th EAA Annual Meeting in Belfast, Northern Ireland, 30 August – 2 September 2023 https://www.e-a-a.org/EAA2023/Programme.aspx?Program=3 click on the Abstract Book (30 Aug) link to find the abstract.
Photographs:
Arnheiðarstöðum Iceland mitten Þjms. 3405 Photo credit: Anne Marie Decker – 24 Jan 2019Display including the Arnheiðarstöðum Iceland mitten Þjms. 3405 Photo credit: Anne Marie Decker – 24 Jan 2019 Anne Marie Decker’s hand comparing size with the Arnheiðarstöðum Iceland mitten Þjms. 3405 Photo credit: Anne Marie Decker – 24 Jan 2019Tip of Arnheiðarstöðum Iceland mitten Þjms. 3405 and thumb. Photo credit: Anne Marie Decker – 24 Jan 2019Arnheiðarstöðum Iceland mitten Þjms. 3405 taken from above to better show the damage to the outer edge. Photo credit: Anne Marie Decker – 24 Jan 2019Photos taken when I first saw the mitten on display in January 2019.
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The museum made the decision to post the recent radiocarbon dating in the online catalog entry for the mitten https://sarpur.is/Adfang.aspx?AdfangID=323304 Accessed 27 May 2024. The online catalog entry also contains a link to the testing laboratory’s Report of Radiocarbon Dating Analyses: https://sarpur.is/Uploads/Files/2290209.pdf (Accessed 23 June 2024). The dating was presented in the Icelandic Mittens presentation given by Charlotte Rimstad et. al. at the European Association of Archaeologists 29th annual meeting in Belfast in 2023 which was apparently not recorded, but the dating is noted in the Abstract for the presentation (pg. 1079 of linked pdf). Apparently an article will be forthcoming in an issue of the Norwegian Textile Review this summer or fall. ↩︎
Hald, Margrethe. “Vötturin fra Arnheidar-Stödum” in Arbok Hins islenzka fornleifafélags, 50. årgang, 1949-1950, Island, pgs. 73-78 ↩︎
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.
Today’s Nalbound Object of the Week is from the islands off Estonia. It’s a lovely white mitten with a large extended cuff decorated with both embroidery and fringe. It was collected in 1912, but was made in 1762 CE.
Description: A white wool mitten with a rounded oval tip that increases smoothly to an extended cuff. At the wrist there is red, blue, and yellow alternating fringe sewn into the underside of the mitten. There is also embroidery at the wrist consisting of a wavy blue line forming rough triangles between two lines of red running stitches with blue lacing around the red. According to the online catalog, the mitten is 36 cm long,1 which is just over 14 inches.
Find location: The mitten was collected in the summer of 1912 by Richard Willems and Paul Ruus from Timofei Tänav, called Tähve, (1837-1914) at the Marti farm in the village of Külasema in Muhu Parish, Estonia, but was noted as being manufactured at Jaagu farm in Sõrve parish on Saaremaa, Estonia.3
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The museum catalog simply notes Wool https://opendata.muis.ee/object/556524 Accessed 16 June 2024. Analysis of the photographs by this author shows that it is 2 Z-spun yarns plied S. ↩︎
In the 1750’s, Erik Säterbeck crafted a beautiful pair of long mittens for the Vasa museum at Ornässtugan, commissioned by Jacob Brandberg. Made of brown and white wool, with intricate red embroidery, these mittens were displayed for 200 years before going to the Livrustkammaren’s conservation studio in the 1950s. They are now in Stockholm’s Livrustkammern.
It’s not often that we know the name of the person that nalbound a particular artifact. Especially not for an artifact made in the 18th century. However, this week’s Nalbound Object of the Week is a beautiful pair of long mittens made in the 1750’s by Erik Säterbeck. The mittens were commissioned by Jacob Brandberg to accompany the Morakarlen’s robes made for the Vasa museum he established in the Ornässtugan where Gustav Vasa ostensibly spent the night during his time in Dalarna in the early 1520’s.1 The mittens were on display for around 200 years before they were sent to the Livrustkammaren’s conservation studio in the 1950’s.
Object: Brown and white, embroidered mittens for the Morakarl exhibition.
Description: Long, brown wool mittens, with a wider white cuff embroidered with red thread in a wide band. The mittens are just under 26 inches long, 660 mm, and just under 9 1/2 wide, 240 mm.2
Stitch(es) used: Misidentified as knitted6 in the museum catalog, this pair appears to be made using the Dalby stitch, F1 UOU/OUOO, based on the images.7 (Stitch identification by Anne Marie Decker based on photographs)
Credit: Livrustkammaren, Livrustkammaren/SHM (CC0)Credit: Livrustkammaren, Livrustkammaren/SHM (CC0)A close-up of the red embroidery on the cuff. Credit: Livrustkammaren, Livrustkammaren/SHM (CC0)
Additional photos of the embroidery are on SHM’s site here and here.
Some sources in which more information can be found: There is a literature reference in the online catalog and additional literature references as well as additional photos are included in:
Morakarlen’s garments, including two pairs of nalbound mittens in the upper left. You can clearly see that the embroidery on the white cuff of the brown mittens is red. Credit: Livrustkammaren, Livrustkammaren/SHM (CC BY 4.0)
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Last week I had the distinct pleasure to go visit a well known mitten that rather recently has been placed on display again in the NOREGR – Medieval Stories exhibition at the Historical Museum in Oslo. And thus, the Oslo mitten joins the Nalbound Object of the Week series.
Anne Marie Decker pointing to the Oslo mitten on display in the Historical Museum in Oslo. Photo Anne Marie Decker 18 April 2024
Object: Oslo Mitten
Description: An adult sized mitten made of wool with damage at the base of the thumb and palm areas.
Dated to: 11th century,1 medieval. Ca. 1025-1125 CE2
The exhibition label for the Oslo mitten in the NOREGR – Medieval Stories exhibition at the Historical Museum in Oslo. Photo: Anne Marie Decker 18 April 2024.
Find location: The mitten was found during the 1926 excavation of the old town of Oslo on a layer of wood chips under the wooden flooring of a narrow passage between houses. This part of town was built in the 11th century.3
Stitch(es) used: Nordland published the stitch used as 412 in his classification system5 which most likely translates to the stitch commonly known as Oslo and classified in Hansen’s notation as UO/UOO F1. However, further examination is warranted as the surface texture does not match. The surface texture more closely resembles the Mammen stitch, F2 UOO/UUOO.
Some sources in which more information can be found:
Claßen-Büttner, Ulrike. Nadelbinden – Was ist denn das? Geschichte und Technik einer fast vergessenen Handarbeit. Norderstedt: Books on Demand GmbH, 2012. ISBN 978-3-8482-0124-2.
Claßen-Büttner, Ulrike. Nalbinding – What in the World Is That? History and Technique of an Almost Forgotten Handicraft. Norderstedt: Books on Demand, 2015. ISBN 978-3-7347-7905-3.
Nordland, Odd. Primitive Scandinavian Textiles in Knotless Netting. Studia Norvegica no. 10. Oslo: Oslo University Press, 1961. No ISBN listed in Book.
Photographs:
The museum catalog has 3 very nice zoomable photos. The two color photos are of one side and the black and white of the other.
Oslo Mitten. Photo: Anne Marie Decker 18 April 2024Detail of the thumb of the Oslo Mitten. Photo: Anne Marie Decker 18 April 2024The display case in which the Oslo mitten is currently located in the NOREGR – Medieval Stories exhibition. Photo: Anne Marie Decker 18 April 2024Detail of the cuff of the Oslo Mitten. Photo: Anne Marie Decker 18 April 2024
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The Nalbound Object of the Week features a pair of mittens from Valle, Setesdal, Norway, dated pre-1913, and currently located in the Norsk Folkemuseum. The mittens are decorated in the typical Valle style and are made of wool. They are recognizable from their use as the cover illustration on Nordland’s Primitive Scandinavian Textiles in Knotless Netting. For more information, visit the museum’s catalog.
Today’s Nalbound Object of the Week comes from Valle in Setesdal, Norway. This pair of mittens was apparently accessioned into the Norsk Folkemuseum’s inventory in 1913. They are more broadly recognized in the nalbinding community because one of them appears on the cover of Odd Nordland’s book “Primitive Scandinavian Textiles in Knotless Netting”1 which is the source of the second specific attempt at a classification system for nalbound structures.
NF.1913-0863AB mittens from Valle in Setesdal in Norway. Photo: Norsk Folkemuseum CC BY-SA
Object: Pair of mittens decorated with a nalbound strip and embroidery in the style typical of Valle in Setesdal, Norway.
Description: White mittens with red, and possibly light green based on related mittens, embroidery on the cuffs and thumb.2 The decoration also includes a separate chain of nalbinding that is attached with embroidery in a wavy pattern. The mittens are 27.5 cm long and 16 cm wide3 (10 21/64 inches by 6 19/64 inches.
Some sources in which more information can be found:
Nordland, Odd. Primitive Scandinavian Textiles in Knotless Netting. Studia Norvegica no. 10. Oslo: Oslo University Press, 1961. No ISBN listed in Book.
Photographs:
NF.1913-0863A mitten from Valle in Setesdal in Norway. This is most likely the specific mitten used for the image on the from of Nordland’s “Primitive Scandinavian Textiles in Knotless Netting.” Photo: Norsk Folkemuseum CC BY-SA
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Knotless Netting is an older term used to describe nalbound structures prior to the borrowing of the term Nalbinding into English. It was used to differentiate nalbound structures from netted structures. However, it did not apparently recognize that nalbound structures are also types of knots; just loose knots compared to the hard knots used in netting. ↩︎
Color based on data and color pictures of related objects as neither Nordland nor the museum’s online record specify the colors of this particular pair of mittens. ↩︎
Larry Schmitt initially used a modified Hansen’s classification moving the connection stitch to the front to recognize that the connection to the previous row occurs prior to the intralacing of most stitches. I have continued this practice in my translations between classification systems. Technically Nordland’s 632 could be either F1 UOOO/UUUOO or F1 OUUU/OOOUU as it only describes the number of loops before a change in intralacement, not the order of intralacement, but the first is more likely given the predominant intralacing patterns. ↩︎
This week’s Nalbound Object of the Week is the Vasa Mitten on display in the Vasa Museum in Stockholm, Sweden. The wool mitten was found in a barrel with a pair of leather outer mittens in the remains of the ship Vasa which sank in 1628 CE.1 It is not the only mitten found on shipwrecks around this timeframe, nor is it the only nalbinding that was found on the Vasa. Simply the nalbound item on display; the rest are kept in the museum inventory.2
Anne Marie Decker as she finds the Vasa mitten and its outer casing on display in the Vasa Museum.
Object: Vasa Mitten
Description: A left mitten liner made of grey wool; loosely spun.3 The thumb is no longer attached to the mitten though it is placed in position for display. The fabric shows heavy fulling, although it is unknown if that was original or simply developed from wear and/or find circumstances.
Dated to: 10 August 1628 CE4 (no more recent than)
Find location: Vasa shipwreck, starboard side of the lower battery deck between beams 2 and 3 about 5.3 to 6.77 meters from the bow,5 Stockholm archipelago, Sweden
Only one of several beautiful and detailed photographs available on the digitaltmuseum.se link. Scroll past the photos of the leather mittens to find them. Photo: Vasa Museum CC BY 4.0
The 1983 edition of Berit Westman’s Nålbindning: 12 varianter contained the first image of the Vasa mitten that I had seen. It was lovely to see it in person again in May of 2023; when I also got the chance to examine the other nalbinding found on the ship.
Some sources in which more information can be found:
Looström, Anne and Birgitta Stapf. “Tre Tusen Textilfragment : Från Wasan Söndagen Den 10 Augusti 1628.” Dissertation. 1983. [Note: I have not read this yet. It was recommended.]
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.
