Naalbinding

Naalbinding or nalbinding, also called needle knitting, is a Scandinavian technique for making a sturdy, elastic fabric. In regular knitting, each loop is only connected to those directly above and below it, but in naalbinding each loop is connected to at least one on either side as well. Naalbinding is slower than knitting because the entire length of yarn must be pulled through each stitch, but it will not run. (Expert naalbinders can be as fast or faster than knitters, but I’m certainly slower!)

I scanned in one of a pair of mittens that I made from handspun yarn using a relatively uncomplicated stitch.

Techniques

-Basic naalbinding technique

-More naalbinding stitches

Resources

I highly recommend Anne Marie Decker’s website for both technique and history.