Extant
finds of naalbinded items have shown materials such as silk, linen, and wool
being used to create these items. A pair
of stockings dating to the 12th century from Delsberg (Delemont),
Switzerland are constructed from linen. (Hald 309) The Staatlisches Museum in Berlin houses a
cap from the 9th-10th century made from silk. (Hald 310) There is also a set of pennants from a Mammen
grave find made from gold thread. (Hald 299)
The material used in the Åsle mitten was
a 2-ply coarse wool, S-spun (left or counter-clockwise) and Z-plied (right or
clockwise). The direction of the spinning is important in that the yarn
tends to unspin itself during the naalbinding process when it is a Z-spun
thread. The yarn was 2-4mm in diameter and was undyed. The current coloring as seen comes from the
bog water. (Hald 302)
On the cuff was a simple striped fringe
of red (obtained from madder), green, and undyed natural wool. The red yarn was a softer, shinier yarn in a
single-ply and S-Spin. It measures 2mm in diameter. The green is also a softer, shinier yarn but
in a 2-ply measuring 2-4mm. It is also S-spun and Z-plied like the yarn from
the body of the mitten. The fringe is
applied in 3 to 4 strands at a time using a simple running stitch with the
loops pulled to the outside.(Strömberg 80)
The extant mitten was created using a
technique most commonly called naalbindning.
Other names for this technique include schlingentecknika (german),
neulaskinnatecknika (Finnish), Vantsöm (Swedish), and “knotless-netting”
(English). Naalbindning is a technique
that uses a large “sewing” needle and short lengths of yarn to create interconnected
loops which in turn make small fabric items such as hats and caps, mittens,
socks, shawls, and milk strainers. The
needles used for making these items were typically made of wood, bone, and
antler.
The technique dates back prior to
knitting and crochet. Some of the oldest
known pieces date back as far as 6500.(Briansdottir
3) Historic samples are often mistaken for
knitting.
There are literally hundreds of variants
of naalbinding “stitches”. There are
several different classification systems in use for naming stitches. Each have a different name or classification
category based on where the items made using the stitch were found or the
number of threads or loops other loops cross.
Margrethe Hald introduced a classification system based on the number of
loops newer loops pass through. (Hald 285) Type 1 describes passing through one loop
where Type 2 describes passing through 2 loops and so on. Odd Nordlund created a classification system
that describes a thread loop as a circle and the new loops pass through
“quadrants” of that circle. This
classification system was quickly rejected.(Hansen
21)
In his article presented to the NESAT
conference in 1990 Egon Hanson describes a classification system based on
whether a new loop passes over or under a previous loop in addition to where it
attaches to the previous row. (Hansen 23)
This is one of the most widely used systems for describing
stitches. For example, the Åsle stitch would
be described as U (U) O/U O:U OO F1+1.
Each U corresponds to going under a loop thread where an O corresponds
to a pass over a loop thread. The F1+1
is the indicator as to where to connect to the previous row. “F” indicates that the connecting stitch will
go through the front of the stitch on the previous row where the number “1”
indicates that it will only go through one stitch. The “+1” directs you to drop down another row
and pass through a stitch on that row before making the F1 connection.
Labels: Asle mitten, mitten, naalbinding, S.C.A., Society for Creative Anachronism