Nalbinding has officially become popular enough that AI is now being used to create nalbinding craft books for sale that will likely trick beginners looking for a cheap entry level instruction books. Unfortunately, the results of using AI to write a nalbinding book currently read like a badly mangled plagiarized scraping of internet blog posts combined into sections that don’t have any logical flow. Not only do the instructions not have the insights from an established nalbinding instructor that are necessary to enhance learning, they actively are wrong and do not make any sense. Add to that, their history sections and stitch name to classification cross walks are all mixed up.
Do not waste your money. These two books appear to be entirely AI generated. They contain random text about nalbinding that clearly has been scraped from internet and put together into erroneous claims. One is completely without pictures and the other only has two pictures. The text is illogical and grammatically messy. Measurements alternate between cm and inches without any logical reason. The pictures on the front covers are clearly AI generated. The picture on the left looks more like a bad interpretation of crochet. The picture on the right is not a recognizable stitch and has a very odd thumb. Unfortunately, it is not possible to learn nalbinding with the help of these books.
For a craft where there is already both insufficient and diffusely produced research, no consolidated corpus of historical artifacts (I’m working on both of these1), and limited modern craft instructions available,2 these AI produced books do nothing to contribute to the craft. In fact, they are likely to convince people to not even continue to try learning what is a beautiful and widely diverse craft.
Do not waste your money on AI written nalbinding books. If you’d like to learn to nalbind, there are several venues suitable to multiple different learning styles. If you like videos, there are a lot on YouTube. My videos can be found here: Nalbinding by Anne Marie Decker, but Sanna-Mari’s cover a wide variety of stitches: https://www.en.neulakintaat.fi/. If you prefer static diagrams or pictures, there are several instruction books currently on the market produced by real live people that have experience teaching nalbinding. Besides my own instruction manuals mentioned in the footnotes below, some of my favorites are: Maria Lind Heel’s out of Denmark (available at https://www.etsy.com/shop/HistoricalcraftsDK) and Kaupeyrir’s out of the UK (https://www.etsy.com/shop/Kaupeyrir). What are your favorites?
If you wish to contribute to future research and resources, please join me on Patreon. Your support is most greatly appreciated! Patrons on Patreon receive early access previews, occasional extra details, and priority requests.
My thanks to Ingela Andersson Lindberg for bringing these to my attention.
Edit (8/13/25): And three more, just in the last few days. One only has 3 pages. None of the cover art is even remotely nalbinding.
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. Ć. SesseljudĆ³ttir 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.
Just before I left for Ghana, I received formal notice that my presentation proposal, submitted in September, has been accepted. I will be presenting “Knee-length nalbound stockings from medieval Scandinavia: Two previously unexamined examples” (abstract below) in the DISTAFF (Discussion, Interpretation, and Study of Textile Arts, Fabrics, and Fashion) and MEDATS (Medieval Dress and Textile Society) sponsored session “For Dress and Textiles (1): Tools and Techniques” at the upcoming (May 8-10, 2025) International Congress on Medieval Studies in Kalamazoo, Michigan.
K’zoo, as it is often affectionately called, is a three day conference that takes place every year on the Western Michigan University campus. Around 1500 presentations, workshops, and demonstrations will occur. Given my lack of a time machine, we will have to select only a few of the around 500 sessions offered to attend. Mom and I tend to focus on those sessions that are textile related. But if there are no textile session offered in a particular time slot, we have found that we often enjoy the environmental sciences presentations.
This year, in addition to presenting in the Tools and Techniques session, I will also be participating in the DISTAFF sponsored Medieval Dress and Textile Arts Display and Demonstration immediately following. Looks like I need to get to nalbinding. But first, find the right yarn…
Title: Knee-length nalbound stockings from medieval Scandinavia: Two previously unexamined examples
Abstract: Over fifty years ago, excavations in the affluent neighborhoods near the Royal Palaces in medieval Nidaros, modern day Trondheim, Norway, and in Helgeandsholmen, Stockholm, Sweden revealed the earliest known knee-length nalbound stockings in Scandinavia. These extraordinary stockings underwent some conservation treatment but had not otherwise been examined in detail. This paper will address the results of recent examinations.
Both stockings exhibit evidence of wear. The toes are damaged or missing. They also share a type of heel, similar to the one on the Uppsala exemplar, that is first seen on socks and stockings of this timeframe. Nalbound knee-length stockings are extremely rare in the pre-Modern Era as most socks made using the technique of nalbinding are ankle length.
The 14th-century wool stocking found under the floorboards in medieval Nidaros is the earliest known example of the Dalby stitch, UOU/OUOO F1, and of what can provisionally be termed three-pass spiral intralacement. It is also the first instantiation of the so-called Russian family of stitches in Kaukonen’s classification system.
The 15th-century wool stocking from Helgeandsholmen is now in three parts, two of which are attached to the conservation mount (the leg and separate midfoot/heel). Examination to identify the specific stitch showed it to be in the two-pass family (Kaukonen’s Finnish family), not three as is the Nidaros stocking.
There is evidence of later re-use of the fabric of the stockings as both have regular holes that are brought into alignment by fold lines and were found with one or more sticks still in them. The area proximal to the holes shows compression, minimal fulling, and retains flexibility. A dark shiny substance appears to be embedded in the fabric more distant from the holes. With a layer of random fibers on the Nidaros stocking, this completely obscures the textile structure in those areas.
If you’d like to help sponsor this research, please join me on Patreon. Patrons receive early access previews, occasional extra details, and priority requests.
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,Ā 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.
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. They also support explorations to find nalbinding around the world.
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.
ArnheiĆ°arstƶưum Iceland mitten Ćjms. 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
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
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:
ArnheiĆ°arstƶưum Iceland mitten Ćjms. 3405 Photo credit: Anne Marie Decker – 24 Jan 2019Display including the ArnheiĆ°arstƶưum Iceland mitten Ćjms. 3405 Photo credit: Anne Marie Decker – 24 Jan 2019 Anne Marie Decker’s hand comparing size with the ArnheiĆ°arstƶưum Iceland mitten Ćjms. 3405 Photo credit: Anne Marie Decker – 24 Jan 2019Tip of ArnheiĆ°arstƶưum Iceland mitten Ćjms. 3405 and thumb. Photo credit: Anne Marie Decker – 24 Jan 2019ArnheiĆ°arstƶưum Iceland mitten Ćjms. 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.
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.
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.
You can support more nalbinding tips by becoming a Patron on Patreon. Patrons receive early access previews, extra details, and priority requests.
After a brief hiatus due to surgery, I bring you another Nalbound Object of the Week. This artifact was mentioned as an aside in an article about Pierre de Courpalay’s gloves (which will be a later post) and for the longest time I could find no more information about it other than it was supposedly an early 14th century green silk reliquary pouch from Namur, Belgium worked in space patterned Simple Looping with a carried thread. There was a stitch diagram, but no picture. My friend Ann Moreau took up the quest to track down more information and was able to provide me with a photograph and a couple of very interesting sources: a master’s thesis and the conservation report.
Description: The purse measures approximately 6.5 inches by 6.3 inches (16.5 x 16cm) not inclusive of the tassels or ties.1 The main body is worked in a pattern of diamonds enclosing four smaller diamonds that is regular on the face, but shows an error in the pattern at the top of the reverse turning it into chevrons.2 There’s a strip of plain green on each side and a green eyelet band at the opening.
The pictures show that the main body of the purse was not worked in the round. Had it been worked around the purse, the slits in the space patterned Simple Looping would have been horizontal like those seen making eyelets on the green eyelet band. However, the slits in the main body are vertical, indicating that the fabric orientation has the base row along the right side of the face (left side of the reverse) and the fabric was built up to the left side. There is no noticeable seam showing at the bottom. All of which may indicate that the face and reverse were worked as one rectangle, sewn up the sides, and then the eyelet band worked around the opening.
The relic purse was classified as a Treasure by the Commission consultative du Patrimoine culturel mobilier [Consultative Commission for Movable Cultural Heritage] on October 4, 2021.3
Dated to: radiocarbon dated to ca 1260-1390 CE4 (77.4% certainty between 1260 and 1310)5
Material: Silk. The tassels include gilded silver metallic threads.8 “The beige and pink threads of the lining are colored with safflower and a dye containing traces of flavonoids, the green thread of the fringes with woad or indigo, and the beige thread of the boucle network with red wood.”9
Desrosiers’ “On medieval pontifical gloves and glove medallions and wristbands found in France” has a diagram of the stitches making the pattern of a portion of the diamond in Fig. 2b on page 160. The diagram is flawed as it shows a whip stitch instead of the Z-crossed Simple Looping. It is showing a B1 O which makes a whip stitch instead of the F1 O that makes Z-crossed Simple Looping. The loops have also been regularized to the top which does not match the direction of work.
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 the Nalbound Object of the Week, we head to Australia where there is a strong nalbinding tradition amongst the aboriginal peoples. Most commonly we see this in their string bags. This bag was collected in 1896 and is now in the Ethnographic collections of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology.
Description: A rectangular bag with alternating light and darker brown stripes. Not quite 11 1/2 inches tall and 6 1/2 inches wide (29 x 16.5 cm)1 The body of the bag and string around the mouth are both Z twist. The carrying string is S-twist.
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.
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.
