The hardcore fringe of nalbinding.

[xylaria]

Rather than hijack the knitting thread I thought it would be best to start a new thread on nalbinding, as now I know there is enough other nutters out there to have a conversation on what must be the most obscure fabric traditional craft.

The main problem with discussing nalbinding is that there is no stable words in english for the various stitches of even nalebinding/nadelbinding/naalbinding it self. This link has good size list of stitches, and some excellant links. .

The first stitch I learned was oslo, which the I learned off bernard's nadelbinding. I learned an easier casting on method from a video that was in finnish. Generally most of the finnish stitches are really complicated, well i have failed abysmally to learn any of them. Finland and the baltic states kept the traditional craft alive because it enabled the manufacture of weather proof mittens that didn't fall apart in the way a knitted glove did if it got a hole. Up until the 1960's finnish fisherman's wives would show how 'good a woman' they were by coming up the most complicated stitches. The more primitive stitches are far less complicated. Basically there is only three things that can happen when constructing a complete stitch one is you can go over the thread, you can go under it, or you can under it an rotate the needle, however doing them all repeatedly in the same way without getting a big knot is the hard bit.

 

[Indoorsout]

This is something I keep meaning to learn and have as yet never managed. I'd love to hear more about it.

 

[AnnieSantiago]

http://www.myvideo.de/watch/823453/The_Asle_Stitch

This is a video of one of the stitches in English!

I've never heard of this, but now i'm anxious to try it!

 

[xylaria]

Asle is a pretty difficult one to start on.
I learnt from this site.

I found with his method of casting on the first three stitches are scruffy. I found a finnish site with in video in finnish and sort followed that for casting . I ended coming up with a another way casting on which looked nothing like the finnish method or bernards, it worked and was less complicated than either of the others.

I did find once I worked out how to cast on successfully, as long as I did the same thing every stitch it looked ok, it might not looked they way it was supposed to but it looked ok.

 

[Toddy]

I'm patient, but nalbinding just does my head in............I take my hat off to anyone who perseveres with it, I'll even make lace before nalbinding

How do you find best to join on more yarn though ? Are there not lots of joins since it's not like crochet and all coming from one ball ?

cheers,
M

 

[xylaria]

I'm patient, but nalbinding just does my head in............I take my hat off to anyone who perseveres with it, I'll even make lace before nalbinding

How do you find best to join on more yarn though ? Are there not lots of joins since it's not like crochet and all coming from one ball ?

cheers,
M

I use about 3 metres of yarn folded into the needle hole, which is why the hole in the needle seems quite big. When I get to the end of the yarn I untwist worsted yarns and then fluff up the ends of both the new and old by combing it with a piece if velcro then retwist them together. Unworsted are easy to fluff out. I then felt them together by chewing the join, the join should be wetter than a thread becomes when you lick it thread a needle. The next two stitches i do very gently. Acrylic thread and thread with acrylic in them don't felt, and I and yet to find a satisfactory way of joining them. Because of the way the knots form together the joins don't cause weakness.

There is a form of lace work that was used pre1800's that used nalbinding to make trianglar scarfs. It was the eastern hiberno-norse area (ulster, E scotland to the faroes). Only the faroes retained the skill in its orginal form, the other areas moved over to crotchet.

I like nalbinding it is really portable, it can be shoved in pocket without coming undone.

I will put some diagrams of my casting on method. I tend to find the first few stitches can look a bit scruffy sometimes, when i was learning i kept giving up because I thought I was doing it wrong, but I found once I did ten stitches, the knots start to form a pattern like it was supposed to. If i need to a ring stitches I found it much simpler to keep a long tail of thread when I cast on, then do line of stitches, then turn that line into a ring by threading the tail through the line and pulling it tight to make a ring. Most websites show some method where the stitches are formed around a loop of thread to make ring, every time I have tried this I make right mess.

 

[Cobweb]

I'm practising the one you showed me at the Viking weekend Xylaria
It gets easier as you go along I find

I was thinking of pursuing Sprang (I had a go but it didn't work ), but I'll start another thread on it...

 

[harryhaller]

This video of the Oslo stitch helped me - I'm beginning to understand it now. It's in German, but it was important to me to see not just the first stitch but how it continued etc.

 

[harryhaller]

xylaria, do you have some photos or diagrams of your casting on method? - I would love to see a photo or drawing of your needle with the larger hole and yarn stuffed in it.

I've made myself a needle but I am thinking of making another a bit like a shuttle with the yarn wind up inside it - though on a small scale of course.

 

[xylaria]

Here is my cast on method, i have tried to make it understandable, but my paintbox piccys are a bit dodgy.

About ten cm from the end of the thread fold a loop forward to make a pretzle shape.

Put the needle under the two threads in the middle of the pretzel and over the loop threads on the outside.

There are two threads that are coming out the bottom of the knot, one thread on the left is the tail, the other thread on the right connects to the needle. Put your left thumb under the thread the thread that goes to the needle. Pinch the knot between the index finger and the thumb.

The right hand loop of the knot should be placed so that it sits on the crest of thumb. The thread with the needle attached should coming out hole that has formed between the thumb and the index finger. The needle should be still in the knot. NOW GENTLY PULL THE NEEDLE.

The loop that is attached to the needle should now be tightening around the moon of the nail. The top of this loop normally catches on the in the crest of thumb. It can get confused with the loop that is already there. The moon loop needs to be pushed down the back of thumb so it circles the thumb. The right hand loop of the orignal knot should be still be on the crest of the thumb.

So you should have now one loop on the crest of the thumb and one loop around the thumb covering the moon at the front. If you pull on the needle the loop on the moon should tighten. The crest and moon loops are kept apart with your index finger. You now be able to start nalbinding.

When I first started I used to forget which loop was which if I had to put the work down, so I carefully placed the work onto an old fashioned clothes peg (dolly peg). I can work out which loop is which by looking at it now.

PLEASE TELL ME IF THIS POST MAKES NO SENSE TO YOU. I tried to find an idiot to test it for me, but he had to go work.

 

[harryhaller]

IT DOES !!

I tried it yesterday and was just going to thank you - because it is much more transparent than the way I had been trying.

I was using string to practice and I was getting problems - so now I've got some wool to practice with.

The first two diagrams - where is that happening - on a table? I've assumed it was being done with the left hand and I am having problems making the transition to the photo following the two diagrams.

Put your left thumb under the thread that goes to the needle.

If I am already holding it with my left hand - I have to hand it over to the right hand in order to do this - this is why am asking whether the first two diagrams are done flat on a table.

 

[harryhaller]

I tried to find an idiot to test it for me, but he had to go work.

Don't worry - I'm testing it

 

[harryhaller]

Ok, I'm doing it on a tray on my lap.

 

[xylaria]

The first photo is showing the real image of the diagram above it, the blue circle is supposed to be a thumb. To make the pretzle knot I hold the thread in the left hand, then fold it in half. I hold the loop between the thumb and first finger, then fold the loop forward the form the pretzle. I have to grip the knot to hold it in place until the needle is inserted. The first photo is showing this, but the problem is that with nalbinding casting on goes on behind the thumb, which mean photos don't show what happening.

 

[harryhaller]

thanks, xylaria, I've got it now. My difficulties are because I'm a beginner who hasn't yet managed to get further than 3 or 4 stitches before having to unravel everything to start again. But your cast-on makes it easier to get started and it's the one I'm using now to continue practising the Oslo stitch.

 

[xylaria]

thanks, xylaria, I've got it now. My difficulties are because I'm a beginner who hasn't yet managed to get further than 3 or 4 stitches before having to unravel everything to start again. But your cast-on makes it easier to get started and it's the one I'm using now to continue practising the Oslo stitch.

Do at least ten stitches before deciding that is going wrong. I still can start pieces where I have to unpick the 3 or 4 becuse they look wrong, the other 400 stitches look great, just the first few are wonky.

 

[Tjurved]

One morning this winter it was - 34 C (that is -29 F) and I took the bicycle to work and my nalbound hat on my head. My ears didn't even get a little cold. Nalbinding is more free, fun and eazy then knitting in my opinion!

 

[xylaria]

One morning this winter it was - 34 C (that is -29 F) and I took the bicycle to work and my nalbound hat on my head. My ears didn't even get a little cold. Nalbinding is more free, fun and eazy then knitting in my opinion!

Welcome to BCUK.
The first garment I ever nalbinded was a hat, it only took me two evenings in oslo stitch. I didn't make it ten percent bigger so it could shink and felt, so it is not that dense, but it is still a very warm hat, I have worn it out in the rain and my head stays dry.

I agree with you completly about nalbinding being more free than knitting, and crochet.

 

[harryhaller]

I've improved, am more confident now. I was always tending to do it a bit different than everyone on the videos and was always trying to correct it and screwing up - but then I saw a video of a dutch guy, and he was stitching in the same way as I tended to - so I've stopped "correcting myself" and it now it goes quite quickly.

So now I'm faced with two problems - all the videos show the people have the thread "bundled" so that they dont have to pull through 3 metres of thread in one long strand each time they do a stitch - how is that bundle created? I suppose the knitting has to be done a bit looser also, to let that bundle pass through.

When one wants to interrupt the work, is there any good method of doing so, so that one can pick up from where one stopped?

Hej, Tjurved ! Welcome to BCUK and good to have another expert on this thread whose brains us beginners can pick

 

[Tjurved]

I've improved, am more confident now. I was always tending to do it a bit different than everyone on the videos and was always trying to correct it and screwing up - but then I saw a video of a dutch guy, and he was stitching in the same way as I tended to - so I've stopped "correcting myself" and it now it goes quite quickly.

So now I'm faced with two problems - all the videos show the people have the thread "bundled" so that they dont have to pull through 3 metres of thread in one long strand each time they do a stitch - how is that bundle created? I suppose the knitting has to be done a bit looser also, to let that bundle pass through.

When one wants to interrupt the work, is there any good method of doing so, so that one can pick up from where one stopped?

Hej, Tjurved ! Welcome to BCUK and good to have another expert on this thread whose brains us beginners can pick

Hello. Here are some pictures that I hope explain how to create two types of "bundles". I like the first one best.





And a picture of my little hat made in Asle with lovikka wool yarn .