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Nalbinding

Otherwise known as 'Needle-binding', this is a craft that has been around a lot longer than Knitting or Crocheting. This was how Romans, Ancient Egyptians, and Vikings made their socks and mittens. It's similar to sewing or embroidery as you use a large needle and work with limited lengths of yarn, perhaps 1 metre, instead of a whole ball of yarn. You don't need to tension the yarn like knitting and crocheting, which is a factor that might make it easier for beginners. I recommend using wool yarn instead of acrylic, as these lengths of yarn need to be frequently joined together. If you use wool you can just felt the ends together; if you use acrylic you need to sew in a million ends. At least only use acrylic for experimenting with stitches, don't use it for whole projects unless you enjoy pain.

Nalbinding is generally worked in spirals the round. If you want a flat piece it's easier to make a tube and then cut it open rather than trying to turn the stitches at the end of the rows, which looks a lot messier than crochet.

The best resource for learning nalbinding is Neulakintaat. The owner of this website has uploaded videos for many stitches, as well as video tutorials for beginners, techniques, and making specific items.

I started nalbinding in the pandemic through making socks. I used a simpler stitch--Oslo stitch--which is thinner and more flexible, good for socks. When creating pairs you should nalbind both at the same time, binding a row on one sock then binding the same row on the other sock. This helps make them both the same, as you can keep track of how many stitches or increases/decreases you made. It also avoids issues with guage, where you might start nalbinding looser as you get used to it, and the second sock turns out much larger.

You won't be working with a pattern, so you either need to try the sock on multiple times to check the fit, or use a template to size the sock to. There are templates available at Neulakintaat.

For constructing the sock there are a number of methods you can use, explained at Nalbinding Socks: Methods of Construction. I used Heel Type C working in rounds. This was my first try at nalbinding and I made the sock in acrylic but I don't recommend it. The sock is actually quite uncomfortable to stand on as the stitches feel hard. I believe wool would have worked better as the sock would felt and the stitches would soften.

Next was making an earwarmer. Again I used acrylic in my favourite colour, but the sewed in ends have come out a little bit, so I don't recommend it. I used Danish stitch, which makes a lovely herringbone pattern. This one turned out slightly too tight and I had to cut it and extend it. This is not very pretty but it works. Remember that the first chain will shrink so it needs to be several centimetres longer than the final product.

I also used a cool method to minimise the first and last stitches of the spiral. Make your stitches progressively smaller and smaller by first picking up less loops when making stitches, then tensioning the loops to the needle instead of the thumb. By doing this the last row of the spiral ends up smaller and blends in very nicely.

My next project is another earwarmer but made with the lovely thick Asle stitch in wool. This will make a very cosy earwarmer that should keep out the wind.