What I have never shared here before is that I am a co-founder of Haemus which is a Center for Scientific Research and Promotion of Culture whose president is my first cousin Ms. Dimitrovska. The Center is in the middle of preparations of a unique event which is called Scupini Romani and will focus on what life was when the Romans were present in these parts. I will write more about the event soon.
Doing research for the event and not wanting to show crochet or knitting, I found out an amazing technique called Naalbinding (or its other variants like nalebinding, nalbinding, nålbinding) which is an ancient fabric construction technique that predates knitting and crochet by some 2000 years.
Naalbinding is literally needle-binding, or in English known as knotless knitting. The technique is distinct from crochet in that it involves passing the full length of the working thread through each loop, unlike crochet where the work is formed only of loops, never involving the free end. It also differs from knitting in that lengths must be pieced together during the process of nålebinding, rather than a continuous strand of yarn that can easily be pulled out.
The oldest known samples of single-needle knitting include the color-patterned sandal socks of the Coptic Christians of Egypt, and this technique was widely popular among the Vikings and it has kept its importance as a technique with the Scandinavian people until today.
The needle used for naalbinding is flat and blunt and varies in size, having a very large eye. There are several stitches I had to master and the videos helped me a lot. I learnt how to make rows and rounds using several stitches. More of my baby steps in naalbinding soon.
Very interesting and I look forward to learning more.
ReplyDeleteThank you Kate! It was very tiring and challenging to use the technique in order to make a simple presentable project.
DeleteInteresting! I've seen references to it in histories of knitting, would love to see more about how it's done.
ReplyDeleteI don't think I will make a tutorial, but I will share links of the tutorials for the basic stitches I used and show what I have already made.
DeleteI am eager to see more. I have never heard of the technique before.
ReplyDeletexx, Carol
Thank you Carol! I hope the continuation will be interesting as well.
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