Hello,
Thank you for visiting! I do hope you found something that interested you on my site. If you have any leads on further nalbound objects you’d like to see me explore, topics to address, or have any questions, please feel free to send me a message. I look forward to hearing from you.
Best Regards,
Anne Marie Decker
- Upcoming Presentations:
“Viking Era Nalbinding: What we know and what we thought we knew” and “Nalbinding Around the World: All six occupied continents” at the Nalbinding Festival at Gudvangen Viking Village, Norway 7-8 November 2026.
- Presentations:
“Revitalizing the Dura-Europos sock: using ratios to estimate original size and form of fragmentary nalbound socks” at the Roman Archaeology Conference/Theoretical Roman Archaeology Conference in Aarhus, Denmark on 22 May 2026.
“Nalbound Heels: Revelations found in construction details” at the International Congress on Medieval Studies in Kalamazoo, Michigan for the DISTAFF/MEDATS Dress and Textiles (2): Techniques session on 15 May 2026.
“Medieval European Nalbinding” for the Medieval European Dress & Textiles Society (MEDATS) online event on 22 March 2026. The recording of which is available to MEDATS members (including new members) through the end of May 2026.
“Knee-length Nalbound Stockings from medieval Scandinavia: Two previously unexamined examples” at the International Congress on Medieval Studies in Kalamazoo, Michigan for the DISTAFF/MEDATS Dress and Textiles (3): Tools and Techniques session on 8 May 2025.
“Beyond the Fringe: revisiting the Sock in a Box” at the How to Study an Egyptian Textile Collection? Egyptian Fabric from the 1st Millenium AD in Two Scandinavian National Museums: Oslo and Copenhagen workshop that occurred on 19 March 2024.
“A fringe study in footwear: lessons learned from a sock in a box” at the Reconstructing Textiles and Their History: Egyptian Fabrics from the 1st Millennium AD online workshop that occurred on March 26th, 2022.
“But it looks like… methods for differentiating non-woven looped structures” presented at the North European Symposium for Archeological Textiles (NESAT) conference on 25 August 2021. Abstract, recording, and additional information available via the blog post here.
“Fringed and patterned: decorative elements in Romano-Coptic nalbound socks” presented at the Textiles from the Nile Valley study group conference on the 27th of October 2019.
“Charting the Nalbinding of the Nile” presented at the Textile Archaeology of Egypt and Sudan’s seminar on “Current Research in Textile Archaeology along the Nile” at the Centre for Textile Research in Copenhagen on 21 January 2019. Abstract and recording are available here.
“Hooked on Eyes: Scandinavian Decorative Hook and Eye Sets from the
Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries,” at the 42nd International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, Mich for the DISTAFF sessions in May 2007.
“Nalbinding or Not?: Some structural differences between nalbinding and other textile techniques” at the International Congress on Medieval Studies in Kalamazoo, Michigan for the DISTAFF sessions in May 2004.
“What is Nalbinding?” at the International Congress on Medieval Studies in Kalamazoo, Michigan for the DISTAFF (Discussion, Interpretation, and Study of Textile Arts, Fabrics, and Fashion) sessions in May 2002.
“Nalbinding and Its History” at the National Arts and Sciences Symposium of
the Society for Creative Anachronism, Seattle, Wash in October 2001.
- Upcoming Publications:
A fringe study in footwear. Lessons learned from a sock in a box.” In Egyptian Fabrics in a Scandinavian Collection: National Museum of Denmark. Edited by A.Haslund Hansen & M. Mossakowska-Gaubert forthcoming from BAR Publishing.
- Publications:
“Case Study 8: Fringed brown sock” in the Archaeological Puzzles in a Museum online exhibition at the National Museum of Denmark which opened 1 April 2023. Details and link to pdf here.
“Three objects catalogued as vantsöm in the collections of the Museum der Kulturen in Basel, Switzerland,” with Cary Karp in Archaeological Textiles Review No. 64 (2022). Link to abstract, announcement, and off-print here.
- Books:
“Nalbinding Made Easy” instruction manual. Sultan, WA: Tangle Fairies, 2004; ISBN 0-9708354-1-8.
“Nalbinding: The Åsle Mitten Stitch: An Instruction Manual: U (U) O/U O:U OO F1+1.” Snohomish, Wash: Tangle Fairies, 2000; ISBN 0-9708354-0-X.
- Exhibitions:
May 2007: “Medieval Textile/Textile Arts Display and Demonstration,” Sponsored by DISTAFF at the 42nd International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, Mich. Per the DISTAFF website: “DISTAFF members exhibited reproduction textile and dress items, handmade using medieval methods and materials, including textiles, decorative treatments, garments, and dress accessories. Exhibitors demonstrated techniques and were available to discuss the use of historic evidence in reproducing artifacts of material culture.”
November 2003: “Never Too Many Socks,” the Weaving Works, Seattle, Wash. Submitted 6 out of a total of 18 socks shown.
October 2001 : Scheduled for display at the 2nd Conference on Norwegian Woven Textiles hosted by the Nordic Heritage Museum, Seattle, Wash; conference cancelled due to the 9/11 attacks.
- Preparatory examination of source material for research reports:
January 2019, Museum der Kulturen Basel, Switzerland: Examined the twenty-four artifacts of compound nalbinding in their collection as well as open looping knitting and other structures.
January 2019, The Warrington Museum & Art Gallery, Warrington, UK: Examine the blue Coptic sock from Oxyrhyncus now known as al-Bahnasa, Egypt.
January 2019, The Manchester Museum, Machester, UK: Examined the second century sock from Antinoupolis. Egypt.
January 2019, The Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester, UK: Examined multiple nalbound artifacts from Coptic Egypt. Four of cross-knit nalbinding and one of compound nalbinding.
October 2015, Consulted with Harma Piening in support of her presentation regarding the differences between Crossed Knitting and Cross-knit Nalbinding at the European Textile Forum.
January and March 2002, Consulted with Krista Vajanto in Finland for her Master’s thesis regarding the stitch variants used in the Eura and Kaukola nalbinding finds from the 12th century.
June 2000, Urumchi Museum, Urumchi, People’s Republic of China: Examined the nalbound Cherchen hat from ca. 1000 B.C.
June 1999, Statens Historiska Museet, Stockholm, Sweden: Examined multiple examples of 13th-14th century A.D. nalbound artifacts.
- Current projects:
- Analyzing the data collected in January 2019’s research in preparation for publications
- Preparing articles on the Tarim hat stitch and on the Dura Europos patterned nalbinding
- Clarifying the similarities and differences between looped textile techniques
- Preparing a cross-comparison of stitch variants used by time and location
- Cataloging extant nalbound artifacts worldwide, pre-1600
- Examining the use of color in nalbound objects
- Classes and workshops:
In addition to giving individual instruction, have taught such formal classes as these to craft groups, re-enactment groups, and others interested in the study of historical textiles:- “Beginning Nalbinding” (since 1996)
- “The History of Nalbinding” (since 1999)
- “Nalbinding: The Aste Mitten Stitch” (since 1999)
- “Beginning Nalbinding: The Mammen Stitch” (since 2000)
- “Nalbinding: Heels and Thumbs” (since 2000)
- “Beginning Nalbinding: The Cross-knit Looping Buttonhole Variant” (since 2000)
- “Advanced Nalbinding: The Russian Stitch” (since 2001)
- Online
Website at http://www.nalbound.com. Undergoing reconstruction.
Early initiator of disciplinary e-mail discussion lists and on-going administrator and participant in such venues.