Stitches and fibres, oh my!

Hello! As we near the end on our nalbinding project, I am going back to our research questions from our first blog post. As Jenny and Kelsey covered needles, tools, and materials, I am moving on to what stitches we used, what fibres were used and what they would have been used for.

When learning about nalbinding, including lessons from re-enactor Linda, we learned the Oslo stitch. It seems to be the most prevalent information available when searching for beginner’s stitches. Many variations are available, including a cast found on a pottery shard in Cucuteni, Romania. This technique was initially thought to be modern day knitting including knit stitches and purl stitches but upon closer inspection, it turned out to be nalbinding or single eyed needle stitching through loops most likely held on the finger or thumb.  There have been ancient samples found in Egypt and Peru, predating the Viking Age by many years, making this a textile art that has spanned not just decades but multiple centuries!

There appears to be many techniques out there, and a quick perusal through Youtube or a google search will show you endless possibilities including how to videos. There also seems to be endless variations of stitches, many including more loops and more sewing, greatly increasing the intricacy of the item. Although we hoped to learn further stitches such as the York stitch when working with Linda, learning the Oslo stitch, casting on, starting in the round, increasing, and decreasing, ate up our four hours of lessons! At this point, after countless hours, I have to say I’m glad I was able to perfect the Oslo stitch. 

When reading through a FinnishNalbinding site, they listed many types of stitches and some of the common uses for each type. Some are exponentially more dense and are used for hats and gloves, to keep in the warmth and keep out the wet and cold. I can confirm, the density of the hat I made would be too hot for a mild west coast winter. Other stiches are meant to allow for breathable open knits, such as mesh bags etc… What variation, and all of this has only been focusing on the actual stitches!

The materials used was another major part. Using animal fibre such as wool was common, although, flax was spun into linen giving a plant based yarn. Linen is a much finer yarn and would not be possible to felt together, making nalbinding with linen difficult. Tying knots in your garment is never ideal as it causes lumps and bumps in the worst places and you always risk it coming undone! One of the positives of working with rough wool yarn is how rough the fibres are. Adding a little heat from rubbing it together (along with recommended spit or water), and before you know it, you have an extended piece of yarn where moments before you had two.

Most of the resources I have found on the various stitches have come from re-enactors or modern day nalbinders who have blogs or websites. As Linda told us, learning from one another (like she has done with many textile crafts from members of the Society for Creative Anachronism) is sometimes a great resource. Sharing the knowledge in this modern day is helping to keep these crafts alive!

Lastly, as touched on in Melissa's spinning lesson last week, we can't forget about the textile art of spinning. As Erin covered in class a few weeks back, spinning would have been a never ending task for those young and old. Creating enough fibre to keep a family clothed let alone all the additional uses such as sails, bags/storage, and any blankets or curtains that would have been used in the home, seems like an unbelievable task. 

Thanks for stopping by - we can't wait to show off our finished craft ASAP!

tk

MARIAN, C., (2007) Archaeological Arguments Concerning the Textile Technologies of Cucuteni Civilization Nalbinding Technique. In  Etablissements et habitations préhistoriques, structures, organisation, symbole: actes du colloque de Iaşi, 10-12 décembre 2007. Vol. 9. Valeanu Madalin Cornel, 2008. pp. 327-334.

LARSSON, A., 2008. Viking Age Textiles. In: S. BRINK, ed, The Viking World. Hoboken: Taylor & Francis, pp.181-185.

Photo 1: http://vikingladyaine.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/07-13.jpg 
Photo 2: http://www.dilettante.info/images/VikingPics/OsloPrimer/oslo1.jpg
Photo 3: http://www.malabrigoyarn.com/images/img_ppal_yarn/z_e4e1ec7f93eb928806db64a35
cc3517f_1.jpg

Tools and Materials: An Update!

Hello my dearest nalbinders,

We missed you! We thought we would recap our research questions, and provide some the insight that we have gained throughout the process! 

How effective or durable are the different needles made of various materials, such as wood, antler, bone? 

Through our research we discovered that many of methods and tools we used to make our own needles would most likely have been similar to what a Viking Age craftsman would have done. Tools that we used that we found to be similar to those we have evidence for from the Viking era include: 

• saws (we used a hack saw)
• axe (we used a hatchet... safer on the fingers)
• flat and round files (we used both flat and metal files)
• draw knives (we used a pocket knife)
• 'sand paper' --there is evidence that sand was 'glued' to leather and used to smooth, pumice was found to have been used to smooth as well (we used 100 and 240 grade sand paper)
• drills (although we used an electric one)
• boiling the bone and antler (we neglected to boil the antler, but learned our lesson for the bone) 

A dear dear... and his beautiful antlers!!

We attempted to use our needles made from the three materials: bone, antler and wood, to nalbind. In the end, we found that although the antler and bone needles were stronger, the wood needles were easiest to work with. This could be because of our specific needles, but we suspect that those in the Viking Age probably felt similarly to us.

Based on our research, we have only found artifactual evidence for bone and antler needles, however we think that based on our own experiences with wood needles they were probably used often, despite what the archaeological record has to show. We think that the reason that there is more evidence for bone and antler needles is because bone and antler are durable materials that preserve well in the ground in Northern Europe, while wood typically decomposes.    


HAPPY NALBINDING!
-KA & JF

MacGREGOR, A., 1985. Bone Antler Ivory and Horn: The Technology of Skeletal Materials Since the Roman Period. USA: Barnes & Noble Books.   

Photo: http://poppygall.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/2-Antlers-photographyserved.com_.jpg