NLBINDING 101

Lady sta Gulf Wars XI

Nlbinding is a type of textile construction made with a needle and thread. The fabric is constructed by making a series of loops. The method dates back to the Bronze Age or even earlier. In Scandinavia it has been practiced continuously from hundreds of years BC to today. Nlbinding was primarily used for items of clothing designed to keep the body warm and dry, and where some stretch was desired (socks, mittens, etc.). It is similar to crochet and knitting in that a single thread is manipulated in order to produce the fabric. It is different, however, in that shorter lengths of yarn must be used, rather than using one continuous length. Also, a threaded needle is used, unlike a knitting needle or crochet hook. I have found it is comfortable to use a needle anywhere from about two to four inches with a blunted tip and a large hole. Most needles thought to have been used for nlbinding in period were of bone, and usually rather flat and wide at the eye end. I have not been able to find any evidence of knots being used in a nlbinded piece except for a piece in the Mammen find that was done in gold thread. In order to avoid having knots in your piece, you must first learn how to join the threads together. If you use wool or yarn with a high wool content, you can felt the ends together and avoid knots. When you run out of working thread, you need to unply or separate the fibers at the end. Then, do the same to your new thread. Join the ends together as such:

Then re-twist the thread a little, moisten it (I usually stick it in my mouth spit is gross but it works), and rub your hands together briskly, rolling the thread between them. Heat + Moisture + Agitation + Wool = Felting If you felted your threads together properly, you should be able to give them a good tug without them separating. This may take a little practice. It doesnt have to be superstrong, just enough so that its not going to come apart. When learning, it is good to use a length of about 18 24 at a time, but once you get going you can use as much as 3 yards or more at a time.

Now that you know how to join new threads, its time to learn a stitch. Make a loop:

Now make another loop joined to the first loop:

Now make a third loop joined to the second loop:

Continue until you have a few inches. Now take your completed stitches and make a ring and join your next stitch to the previous one AND the first one you did you are now starting row two: Beginning of work This circles around to point B.

Point B

Join by doing this:

Now, if you keep joining to the previous row in this way, you are doing open buttonhole stitch (also called free buttonhole stitch). No, youre not nlbinding yet. Eventually your fabric will look like this:

You can also join to the previous row where the threads cross, like this:

No, its still not (technically) nlbinding. This is mesh stitch. Eventually your fabric will look like this:

Both of these stitches are good to know. Not only does working them give you practice with techniques you will use in nlbinding, but these stitches were used in period. Open buttonhole stitch was used for decoration, seam finishes, and around cut edges of fabric. Mesh stitch was found on a cap thought to be 9th 10th c. Arabian. Metal threadwork from Birka may have been done in mesh stitch.

Now for the real thing! There are two ways to begin a piece straight or in the round. We will start by doing a straight strip. Since your thumb will be used to keep the size of your stitches consistent, we will start there. Wrap your thread (near the non-needle end) around your thumb for the first loop:

Slide the loop off your thumb so it lies on top of your thumb with the thread leading to the needle hanging off your thumb on the side toward you:

Then, take your needle and go over the top right-hand portion of the loop, under the bottom right-hand portion of the loop, and over the thread hanging down from your thumb.

Pinch down with your left index finger on the needle and the loop on your thumb to keep the previous loop from going anywhere. Pull the needle through. If you pull the needle straight down in front of your thumb, a loop should tighten around your thumb. Your thumb should now look like this:

If you slid your thumb out and laid it flat, it would look like this:

At this time, the first loop you made should be sitting on top of your thumb and the new loop is around your thumb. Next, you take the needle, and go under the right-hand side of the FIRST stitch you made:

Your needle should now be pointing up. Turn it toward you so that it points down, and point it to the left and run it under the thread hanging down in front of your thumb and under the thread that goes around your thumb:

When you turn the needle back toward you to pull the thread through, again pinch down with your index finger because this will slip the loop off your thumb. Dont worry, though, because when you finish pulling your thread through, you will have a new loop on your thumb. Note: Occasionally, the loop you are making may want to pop up and wrap around your index finger. Just stop pulling the needle and slip it back into place around your thumb.

At this time, the top of your thumb looks like this:

Now you will pick up (go under) the right-hand side of the SECOND stitch you made. If you are having trouble figuring out which one that is, its the shaded one (the loop on top closest to the end of your thumb:

Do this the same as the last stitch go under the right-hand side of the last stitch on top of your thumb:

pinch down, turn the needle, and go under the loop on your thumb and the thread hanging down just like you did for the last stitch. Again, while holding the previous stitches down with your index finger, pull the needle through, letting the old loop around your thumb slip off to the top of your thumb and forming a new loop around your thumb. You can keep repeating this step until you have as much as you want. Now you can do one of two things make a ring with your row of completed stitches and join the next stitch to make a loop, or turn your work around and go back the other way so that you have a flat piece. We will make a loop. Take the strip of nlbinding you have completed and wrap it around so that the beginning is in front of your thumb. Make sure its not twisted. You will join this to the next stitch you make. All you need to do is run your needle through the bottom of the first loop at the beginning of your strip and then make your next stitch as usual. For the next stitch, run your needle through the second loop in the previous row and then make your next stitch as usual. It will be easier once you have several stitches joining the current row to the previous row. This is the same as how you joined to the previous row in open buttonhole stitch (see, there was a reason for learning that). To increase: pick up the same loop in the previous row twice (for two new stitches). To decrease: pick up two loops in the previous row for your new stitch instead of one. Starting in the round instead of with a strip of loops: Make a slipknot near the end of your thread. Make it so that you can pull the short tail of the knot to decrease the size of the ring by making a knot several inches from the end:

and then poke the very end of the thread through the knot before you tighten it:

and then tighten it.

Then you start as usual but make sure that each time you make a loop you first run the needle through this big slipring. When you have as many stitches as you want around the ring (12 to 24 is a good start), pull the loose end. You will wind up with something like this:

Then, just as earlier when we made a ring, you join in the first stitch you made and keep going around. Note: this will make a tube. If you want to make a flat disc, you will need to increase. Pick up the first loop from the previous row (the first loop you made), and make a stitch. Pick up the second loop from the previous row and make a stitch. Now, pick up the second loop again and make a stitch. Keep going like this stitch one, increase one, until you are all the way around. Note that the directions <stitch one, increase one> will result in three stitches using only two loops from the previous row. Making a slit can be useful for mittens, where the thumb is made separately and then sewn on at the end. To make a slit, stitch to the point where you want the slit to begin. Then, make several stitches WITHOUT PICKING UP ANY LOOPS FROM THE PREVIOUS ROW. Then, rejoin to the previous row. Make sure you skip the same number of stitches on the previous row as you made without joining. For example, if you make twelve stitches without joining to the previous row, when you join make sure you skip twelve stitches before rejoining the previous row.

Finishing Fortunately, nlbinding doesnt unravel like crochet or knitting. To finish off, pull the last couple of stitches snugly around the thumb. Then remove from the thumb and tighten the last 2 or so with the tip of the needle. Weave the loose end back through a couple of stitches. Sources Hald, Margrethe; Ancient Danish Textiles from Bogs And Burials: A Comparative Study of Costume and Iron Age Textiles; Publications of The National Museum of Denmark; Archaeological Historical Series XXI; Translated by Jean Olsen; Fyens Stiftsbogtrykkeri, Copenhagen, 1980; ISBN 87-480-0312-3. Hansen, Egon H.; Nalebinding: definition and description in Textiles in Northern Archaeology, Textile Symposium in York, North European Symposium for Archaeological Textiles Monograph 3, NESAT III; London Archetype Publications, 1990; pgs. 21-27; ISBN 1-873132-05-0. Schmitt, Lawrence; Lessons in Nlbinding: Edgings and Embellishments; Larry Schmitt, Cottage Grove, WI, 1996. Schmitt, Lawrence; Lessons in Nlbinding: Scarves Wimples and more; Larry Schmitt, Cottage Grove, WI, 1996. Schmitt, Lawrence W.; Lots of Socks; Larry Schmitt, Cottage Grove, WI, 2000. Schmitt, Lawrence W.; Mittens, Mittens, Mittens! A Nlbinding Mitten Workbook; Larry Schmitt, Cottage Grove, WI, 1997. Other resources: Nlbinding mailing list: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nalbinding/ If you have questions, suggestions, or comments, please email me at asta@pclnet.net Thanks!