Needlebinding

Why needlebinding?

When we startet Byfrost, some of us had no idea what their spediality would be. And juslt like jobs and hobbies I have tried a couple of different techniques. I have done woodworking, made my own clothes, worked with leather and tried differend weave techniques. But I didn's succeed in finding something that fits me right. In the world of needlebinding I only knew the danish stitch (O/UO). The problem was I realy don't like this specific stitch. When I was asked to do a needlebind workshop to a group of children, I searched the internet. While surfing I stumbled across the site of Bernard Dankbar. Where I first saw the oslo stich(UO/UOO) explained. This stitch fascinated me, I started experimenting. and after a day of trying, swearing and having to throw away a lot of yarn I found my speciality

General information

Around the world this ancient technique is used and known under many names. Examples from European names of this technique are shown below.

Dutch: naaldbinden
Swedish: nålebinding, nålbindning, nålning, påtning, sömning
Danish: Nålebinding, binding, knudeløst net
English: needle binding, knotless net, plain looping, buttenhole looping, simple loop interlocking, naalbinding, nailbinding or needle binding
German: Schlingentechnik

Needlebinding looks like knitting and crochet, only you don't work with an endless length on a boll, but with (short) threads. The reached effect is also described as knotless netting. Dhe thread is pulled through a earlyer made loop, wich results into a new loop. This is how the loops are made one by one. A big differende between knitting and crochet is dat a piece in those techniques is very easy to undo. Just pull on a thread and you open all the loops. This is not the case with needlebinding. each stitch is a knot on itself. On first site they all look alike, but when you look closer and folow the thread (or try to unreavel(?) it, you'll see the difference

In the past this technique was common for making, socks, stockings, purses/bags, nets and decoration. Eventualy the technique faded away due couse of knitting and crochet, techniques who are a lot less labour-intensive.

Probably there is a lot of needlebound work in (european) museums. But because the technique is not very known, the museums don't call it by the name. For instance we found a nice yellow/green childrens sock in a museum in Trier (D).

Childrenssock, seen in Trier, 10th-11th century

History

Needlebinding is seen by a lot of people (including Ronald) as the oldest textile technique, probably older than (?????????)spinnen met een spintol. This because for needlebinding you don't need a long thread, but work with shorter pieces. The problem is there are very few findings. We are talking about textile, wich is very perishing and it only stays good under certain circumstances.

Some of the oldest finds have been made in Judea (6500 B.C.), Danmark (4500 B.C.) But there are also findings at the Brittish islands, Scandinavia, the old Egypt and the Arabian peninsula. At the moment the technique stil is done in many places in europe and the middle east. Especialy in Sweden, here the technique is even still teached in some schools

Because we specialise in the early mediaeval period, We aim at findings from this timeperiod.

Explanation

There is an encredible variety in stiches when you talk about needlebinding. From very simple like F1 O/UO The Danish stitch, going to vague variants as F1 UUOOUUU/OOOUUOOO where there is not even a normal name and when you are very creative (and have a lot of patience) I bet you can tink of even more exciting variants. To make any order in this chaotic bunch of stiches some classificationsystems have been thought of.

But mostly I busy myself with historical correct stiches, wich are mostly named after ther findingplace like the oslo- korgen- york- mammen- åsle- and dalbystich. But even these last ones are to much for me. Rather mastering in one stich and doing it right, than knowing a little bit of them all. That's why I only put the explanation of the oslostich on the F1 UO/UOO next page

Links

Here you'll find some sites from wich I learned a lot, of sites that are just interesting to look at if you want to know moere about needlebinding.
-www.nadelbinden.de.vu The place where I found my love for needlebinding. Thanx Bernhard!!
-groups.yahoo.com/group/nalbinding The place where the needlebindingworld can come together.
-www.geocities.com/sigridkitty Very comprehensively site where needlebinding is watched from a wide variety of angles, also a lot of history.
-Muninn en Huginn With text and explanation of needlebinding in Dutch from Una Hrafna.
-Nålbinding, website of Anne Marie Haymes, Writer of Nalebinding made easy
-Viking Age Nålebinding
-Nalbinding Socks: Methods of Construction
-Viking and Medieval Nålebinding Mitten Reconstructions
-Socks of Nalbinding, 10th Century
-Antler Needle for Nalbinding.