Nalbinding
Hi there!
My name is Jeff (Or Dirkson on facebook). Thanks for spending some time with me learning about nalbinding. Here are a few tidbits that might be helpful if you'd like to continue your nalbinding journey.
Resources
- Wikipedia page for nalbinding.
- Good for basic history, pictures, etc.
- Neulakintaat
- Norwegian website that contains an incredible wealth of nalbinding information. It has most complete set of stitch examples available, many of which have instructional videos. Unfortunately, many links are frequently broken.
- Neulakintaat Youtube Channel
- Theoretically every video here is linked from the Neulakintaat website, but in practice you may need to look in both places to find information on many stitches.
Needles
You need a large, blunt needle. Nalbinding Needles are available in wood, bone, and horn. I prefer horn to bone, and prefer bone to wood. Some people prefer curved needles, but straight are fairly standard. Expect to pay $5 to $15 per needle.
Where to buy needles:
- Etsy is a good source for high quality needles..
- There are many different sellers all on the same site.
- Amazon has both high and low quality needles.
- I have purchased the "Savina" and "Lahumzco" needles, and found them perfectly fine.
- I've seen nalbinding needles for sale, rarely, at Ren Faires.
- For local purchasing, you're unlikely to find an actual nalbinding needle, but some stores might have a tapistry needle or a bodkin needle that might be large enough to work.
Yarn
A yarn that will felt makes nalbinding a lot easier. These yarns will felt:
- Non-superwash wool. This is the traditional material.
- Alpaca
- Angora
- Yak
But these yarns will NOT felt:
- Acrylic (the most common!)
- Cotton
- Superwash wool yarn
The size of the yarn is important, and varies based on both chosen stitch and thumb side. For my large thumbs, a 5 Chunky yarn is about perfect. I suspect most people would find 4 Worsted about right, while people with smaller hands might try for a 3 DK. 2 Sport or smaller will require you to work off your thumb, using the needle for your gauge, which is a more advanced technique.
Most modern yarn is 2 ply. Most, but not all, period yarn used for nalbinding would have been single ply. My personal favorite pick is to buy shetland wool. The wool is sturdy, soft, warm, and felts well.
Where to buy yarn:
- Etsy is a treasure trove.
- Most of the yarn I use comes from various etsy sellers. Some even offer undyed or plant-dyed options - Great for SCA types!
- Amazon works, but there are fewer options.
- Large craft stores (Michael's, etc.) usually only have one or two options, but they're cheap. My current practice yarn was purchased from Michael's.
- LaFavorites, in Kelso, usually has a few options available, and in more interesting colors than the large craft stores.
- If you like the variegated yarn I use for teaching, I get that from "FiberFusion" on etsy. I generally buy the single ply hand-dyed wool they offer. They also sell quite a bit of wool that would be difficult to nalbind with, so read descriptions carefully. They don't appear to repeat patterns, with each colorway being more or less unique.
Unfortunately, none of these sellers fully separate the feltable yarn from the non-feltable. You will need to be diligent in checking whether the item you're looking at is the right material, size, and ply for what you want to do with it.
Help!
While it may take me a couple days to reply, I'm happy to chat when I can. Feel free to drop me an email:
jeff@orangehattech.com