(:title "Learning Nalbinding"
:snip "What I wish I knew when I started learning my first fiber art."
:date "2026-08-29T20:15:00Z"
:draft t)
Off and on over the past year or so I've been learning [nalbinding][nalbinding]
(also called "needlebinding" and a lot of other things), a fiber art which
predates knitting by thousands of years. It's been a very rewarding, relaxing,
and cozy hobby (especially in the winter months), but it's not nearly as popular
as knitting or crochet so it can be difficult to find good resources to learn
from.
In this post I'm going to describe how I learned, some of the things I've made,
and generally just write down all the things I wish I could have told myself
a year ago when I was just starting out. There are a lot of other great
resources out there, so you should search those out too if you're interested.
This is all just what happened to work well for me.
[nalbinding]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N%C3%A5lebinding
<div id="toc"></div>
## Why Learn Nalbinding?
I first heard of nalbinding when my partner and I visited the [Eiríksstaðir
museum](https://www.eiriksstadir.is/) in Iceland. I never had any exposure to
knitting or crochet at all when I was growing up as a boy in rural Pennsylvania
in the 80's and 90's, so I had certainly never heard of nalbinding either.
A few months later I found myself wanting to make her a gift that would keep her
warm, and remembered our visit. She's experienced at knitting and crochet, so
I didn't want to just make her a worse version of something she could have made
herself. But she had never learned nalbinding, so I decided to give it at try
and see if I could make something.
Much like knitting, nalbinding is quite a cozy activity, especially during the
winter months in a cold climate, and once you get a little experience it's very
relaxing to be able to make something while you're spending time with people or
watching a movie or anything else. There are also a few other reasons you might
decide to pick it up over knitting/crochet even if you don't have a partner that
already knows how to do those.
Nalbound items are generally very warm, because they're usually made with
relatively thick wool. I've always lived in cold places (the northeastern US
and Reykjavík) so I can appreciate this.
Nalbinding is very durable. Unlike knitting, it won't unravel if a piece of the
yarn breaks. You can even *cut a piece of nalbinding work in half with
scissors* and the halves *still* won't unravel, which some people exploit to
make a large sheet of fabric easily by making a cylinder and cutting it along
the long edge.
Unlike knitting, nalbinding (usually) uses your thumb as a gauge to determine
the width of the stitches. Everyone's thumb is a different size, which means my
stitches will be a different size than yours. Because of this, nalbinders don't
usually work from a fixed pattern like you often see in knitting, but you just
sort of learn the basics, figure out a general plan for the thing you want to
make and then… wing it, figuring out the specifics as you go. This might sound
intimidating, but I personally found it very freeing to not have to follow
a fixed pattern and worry about messing it up and having to undo a ton of work
to make it "correct".
The barrier to entry for nalbinding is, equipment-wise, almost *comically* low.
You can try it out with a popsicle stick, a ball of yarn, your thumbs, and
nothing else. There are a few other things that are nice to have that you might
want to get if you decide you like it and want to continue, but you really don't
need much to get started. Maybe this is why it appeared so early in humanity's
history.
On the topic of history, nalbinding has been around for thousands of years (from
the Wikipedia page above: an early fragment was found from 6500 BCE) and has
been done by humans all over the world. I personally found it really very
satisfying to learn an art that our species has been doing for millennia. Unlike
the rest of this blog (which is mostly about programming), nalbinding gives me
a sense of being connected to a much longer history. If I were somehow
transported back in time eight thousand years, I could pick up a needle and
nalbind alongside someone without too much fuss, which I personally find pretty
cool.
Since then I've made a bunch more things for her and myself, and I'm looking
forward to making a lot more this winter. I think it's a really fun and
interesting art that anyone can learn, even if you weren't already taught how to
knit or crochet as a kid and you don't have access to someone to teach you
in-person.
## Getting Started
You really don't need a lot of things to get started with nalbinding, just:
* A needle
* Yarn
* Videos to learn from
* An idea to make
There's a pretty good chance that all of these are available near you right now
if you know what to look for (and your shops are currently open), so if you read
this and it sounds exciting you can probably gather what you need and be trying
your first nalbinding in just a few hours!
### Getting or Making a Needle
A typical nalbinding needle is a long (4-6 inches, X-Ycm), blunt needle, usually
made of wood, bone, horn, or plastic, with a large hole at the end for yarn to
go through. Here's a picture of all the needles I've collected over the past
year:
[](/static/images/blog/2026/08/full/TODO.jpg)
Collecting needles is fun, but you really only need one. 95% of everything I've
made has been with one of the two needles on top, which are my favorite ones.
I'll talk about where to get this kind of needle later (and how to customize it
to make it even better) but you can actually get started with something even
simpler: either a tapestry needle or making your own.
#### Starting with a Tapestry Needle
I personally got started with this metal needle which was under $1 at a local
shop:
[](/static/images/blog/2026/08/full/TODO.jpg)
You'll be able to find something like it at any craft store, just look for
a "tapestry needle" that's relatively blunt and with as large a hole as
possible. You might also be able to find some that are plastic — I found this
package of two in the (very tiny) crafts section of a Meijer grocery store for
$2:
[](/static/images/blog/2026/08/full/TODO.jpg)
A tapestry needle is a really easy to get and cheap way to get started. And
honestly… it's *surprisingly* effective for nalbinding even though it looks very
different from a real nalbinding needle.
Do **not**, however, attempt to use a *sewing* needle for nalbinding! Sewing
needles are much too thin, too short, too pointy, and the eyes are far too
small for the yarn you'll use. Then only thing a sewing needle will help with
is stabbing yourself.
#### Making Your Own Needle
Another option is to make your own needle. This is a little more work, but will
probably work a little bit better than a tapestry needle because it'll be closer
in shape to a real nalbinding needle. For this you'll need a popsicle stick,
some sandpaper, and either a drill or a knife to make the eye.
You can get sandpaper from any hardware store if you don't already have some.
If you want to get a single grit then 600 grit is best for this, but I'd
recommend buying a variety pack so you'll have a bunch of different grits (grit
is how rough the sandpaper is, lower grit means rougher).
You can either buy some popsicle sticks from a craft store (cheap and easy, but
you'll probably have to buy way more than you need) or buy some actual popsicles
from a grocery store and eat one to get the stick (tasty, but you'll have to try
your best to wash the sugar off it after). If you can't get a popsicle stick
you can even start with an actual stick from a tree instead and carve it down to
size with a knife.
Either way, once you've got a popsicle stick, you'll want to make a hole (which
will be the eye of the needle) in one end with a drill or (very carefully) using
a knife tip to drill a hole. Use some sandpaper to enlarge and smooth the eye,
then trim down and shape the rest of the needle with the knife/sandpaper until
it's approximately the right size and shape:
* Aim for about 4-5 inches long. Different people like different sized needles
(I prefer longer needles myself), but you won't know what you prefer until
you've learned a bit and made a few things. 4-5in is a good middle ground,
just start there for now.
* Don't make the tip *too* thin and/or pointy, because that'll make it more
likely to accidentally split the yarn later.
* Once you've got it shaped, use sandpaper to make sure it's smooth all over
(including inside the eye!) so it won't snag the yarn.
[](/static/images/blog/2026/08/full/TODO.jpg)
### Buying Yarn
Once you've got a needle, the only other physical item you need is some yarn to
make something out of. Nalbinding is a little more particular about the kind of
yarn you need than other crafts, so you'll probably want to try to find a local
yarn store to buy from because it's likely that the small selection at e.g.
Target won't have what you need.
You can order online, of course, but that can take longer to ship and it's
harder to judge the look (and impossible to judge the feel) through a screen.
I'd recommend trying to find a yarn store somewhere near you that you can
physically go to so you can see and touch the yarn in person. Just search for
"yarn store" on your preferred maps website, you'll probably be able to find one
that's not too far away.
Unfortunately, walking into a yarn store as someone who's never had any exposure
to knitting or crochet is… intimidating. I'll try to give you enough basics
here to get in, find what you need to get started nalbinding, and get out
without too much stress.
A unit of yarn is called a "skein" (rhymes with "stain"). Usually they'll be
around 100 grams of yarn, but this can vary. Just try to get one or two skeins
for now. If you end up sticking with the hobby you'll find yourself with more
yarn than you know what to do with before long.
#### Yarn Sizing
Nalbinding generally works better with larger yarn, especially when you're first
starting out. You might expect that yarn sizes in the shop are organized by
something like "the width of the yarn in mm", but unfortunately they're almost
certainly not. Some typical yarn sizes (at least here in the US) are, in order
(roughly) from thinnest to thickest:
* Lace
* Fingering
* Sock
* Sport
* DK
* Worsted
* Arran
* Chunky or Bulky
* Super Chunky or Super Bulky
* Jumbo
These are rough categories, and a yarn that one company might label worsted
might actually be smaller than another company's arran (especially if it's
denser).
When you're getting started nalbinding you'll want a relatively large yarn,
preferably about the width of a pencil, so you can more easily see what you're
doing and it'll hold itself together more cleanly. Start at the Bulky section
of the yarn store and look around from there to find one that's roughly that
size.
#### Yarn Material
Yarn can be made of different kinds of fibers, e.g.: wool, cotton, linen, silk,
polyester, etc. When you first start nalbinding, you'll want to get 100% wool
yarn because that's the kind that will most easily join together by felting
(you'll see what "felting" is in the videos below). There are ways to nalbind
with other yarns by joining in different ways, but don't try to start learning
on hard mode — just trust me and get 100% wool for your first attempts.
One more thing to look out for: **do not** get "superwash" wool. Superwash is
a process that modifies wool in several ways to make it more machine washable.
One of the results is that superwash wool is harder to felt, which is why we're
buying wool in the first place. If you're looking at a yarn and the fiber
content on the labels says something like "superwash merino", put it back.
Don't try to learn on hard mode.
#### Yarn Colors
Yarn comes in a lot of different colors. It will be easiest to start with
a lighter-colored yarn because it'll be easier to see the individual stitches,
but make sure to get a color you at least think looks halfway decent. Neon
orange is easy to see but if you hate how it looks you're not going to enjoy the
process of learning and be motivated to continue.
You'll also probably notice that some yarns in the store are a single color and
some other yarns have many different colors mixed together, e.g.:
[](/static/images/blog/2026/08/full/TODO.jpg)
Those mixed ones are called variegated and are great to start with as a beginner
because they'll make it even easier to see the boundaries between stitches: if
two threads next to each other have different colors it's easier to tell them
apart. I personally think a lot of variegated yarn tends to look a bit tacky,
but there *are* some tasteful ones out there too. So if you see a variegated
yarn that you think looks good, and it checks all the other necessary boxes,
definitely go for it!
#### Yarn Ply
Yarns can be made of a single spun strand (called a ply), or have two or more
strands (plies) twisted together to form the main body of the yarn. When you're
first starting out nalbinding you'll ideally want a single-ply yarn. Multiple
plies will make it more confusing when you're trying to see where your stitches
are. It's not the end of the world if you have to use a 2- or 3-ply yarn, but
try for 1-ply if possible.
#### Winding
When you finally have the yarn you're looking for and walk up to the cash
register to buy it, they might ask you if you want them to wind it for you. If
you're like me, you'll look down at the ball of yarn that already looks
perfectly wound and say "uh, sure?"
Here's what you need to know about the whole "winding" thing. Skeins of yarn in
the shop are generally going to be sitting on the shelf loosely wound, often in
either a ball shape or twisted into a more horizontal hank shape:
[](/static/images/blog/2026/08/full/TODO.jpg)
Both of these are loosely-wrapped, which is great for shipping and storage
because it puts less tension on the yarn. But when you're actually going to
*use* the yarn, you'll want to be able to grab one end and pull to cleanly drag
some yarn off the skein, and this is hard to do without tangling when it's in
the original loosely-packed form. When the shop winds the yarn for you, they
wind it up so that it'll pull cleanly and easily off as you're working. You can
(and should) learn to wind your yarn by hand yourself eventually, but they'll be
able to do it for you much cleaner and faster with the machine in the store. So
the general rules are:
1. If you're buying yarn that you're going to just store, and not going to use for a while, leave it unwound.
2. If you're going to use it immediately, you may as well have them wind it for you.
3. Once the yarn is wound you can't return it, so if you might not need it then *don't* wind it.
Another useful thing to know: when pulling from a wound ball of yarn, you pull
the end of the yarn coming from the *inside* of the ball, not the end on the
outside. I don't know if this is supposed to be obvious, but it certainly
wasn't obvious to me for my first few months until someone finally told me.
#### Please Just Tell Me What Yarn To Buy Already
Summing up the above, you want a yarn that satisfies (in rough order of importance):
* 100% wool, non-superwash
* Large size (probably "bulky" or "super bulky")
* Single ply
* A bright color you don't hate, ideally variegated if you find one you like
* Let them wind if for you (if they ask)
Here are some actual examples that I've used and would say would be good for
a beginner:
* [Woolstok North](https://blueskyfibers.com/product/woolstok-north/)
* [Malabrigo Rasta](https://malabrigoyarn.com/yarns/rasta)
### Other Useful Tidbits
A small cup of water will come in handy if you don't want to spit in your hands
to felt lengths of yarn together later.
If you have some safety pins, those will also come in handy when you want to
mark places in your pieces (e.g. where a row begins). Be careful: yarn shops
will sell "stitch markers" which sound like a thing that would be perfect for
this, but there are two kinds of stitch markers and only one of them will
actually work for nalbinding:
* The kind that open and close, which are basically just smaller safety pins.
These are great, feel free to buy a pack if you want. The ones I have are
shown below.
* The kind that are just a fixed circle and do *not* open and close. These only
work for knitting, **they do not work for nalbinding**.
[](/static/images/blog/2026/08/full/TODO.jpg)
### Where to learn
At this point you should have:
* A needle
* A skein of yarn or two
* (Optional) safety pins for marking stitches
* (Optional if you don't mind being gross) a cup of water to avoid needing to spit on your hands
One of the first nalbinding videos I found useful is [this tutorial from
Valkyrja](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMbCEQ9xQg4) because it shows all the
steps from start to finish. Watch that video, and if you want to dive right in
an give it a try immediately, go ahead.
I liked that tutorial to get an overview of how the process was supposed to
work, but I had a few difficulties following it:
* The dark-colored yarn and wide angle view make it a little hard to see what's
going on.
* The beginning figure-eight loop is fast if you know how to do it, but is
really tricky to get the hang of (at least for me). I still can't use this
method of starting.
* The initial chain she creates is very clean, because she's experienced. Your
first attempt is probably going to look like a slinky that went through
a washing machine. There are some things you can do to make it cleaner, which
will make the whole process easier.
I spent a lot of time watching nalbinding videos by various people, and none of
them really clicked with my brain until I found [Happy
Needlebinding](https://www.youtube.com/@happyneedlebinding) on YouTube. His
videos are a joy because they break things down clearly, simply, slowly, and
(importantly for me) he doesn't assume you already know how to knit or crochet.
Scroll through his catalog of videos (the basic tutorials are some of the oldest
videos) and watch a few and I think you'll find them very helpful. There were
a few things in particular from his videos that really helped take me from "this
hobby is a struggle" to "this hobby is actually kind of fun".
First was how he starts his work by using a single overhand knot as a loop and
then builds the extra loops he needs to start one at a time, instead of using
the figure-eight trick to do everything in one single (but inscrutable) step.
This is a little slower, but you only have to start each piece once, so compared
to the total time you spend making something it really doesn't matter, and it's
much easier to keep track of each loop if you make them one by one.
As he's starting out the first few loops, you'll see him tidy up the back of the
chain after he does every stitch. You technically don't really *have* to do
this because it'll eventually work itself out once you start joining onto it and
with enough practice. But when you're first starting out, even getting to the
point of having enough clean stitches that you want to continue with is
a struggle, so tidying up as you make each stitch really helped me keep things
clean and legible when I was first starting out. If you're finding your initial
chains are looking rough, maybe give this a try.
Also note how he uses his thumb, index, *and middle* finger of his left hand to
manage the needle. He explains this in one of his videos and [on his
website](https://needlebinding.com/arboga-stich/) where he shows how he uses
those three fingers to guide the needle like a drill holding onto a drill bit,
and that one analogy was what suddenly made the whole process feel comfortable
to me instead of a struggle. After watching so many tutorials where someone
guided the needle with two fingers (never explaining why) and feeling like I was
having to squeeze the needle tightly to keep control, trying the three-finger
drill-bit approach was incredibly helpful and relaxing. Now I can nalbind for
an hour or more at a time and my hands don't ache at the end.
### Stitches
If you start searching around online for nalbinding resources you'll quickly
discover that there are many, many, *many* different stitches you can use. It's
easy to get choice paralysis and not know what to try, or to think you always
need to be trying a new stitch.
The simplest stitch that most nalbinding tutorials use is Oslo stitch, or "1+1
F1" (you'll learn the notation later). If you start looking into the history of
nalbinding and the artifacts that have been found you'll probably notice that
a suspiciously high number of them happen to use Oslo stitch too. So for your
first few projects, just use Oslo stitch. It's simple and effective and works
great. You can try other stitches later, but just start with Oslo and don't
worry about it for now.
### What to Make
You'll want to start by making a few chains of 20-30 stitches just to get the
general motion into your hands. These are going to look like hell, but that's
okay, just try to perform all the steps slowly and cleanly until they start to
feel a little less weird. Put them in a box and look at them in a year to see
how far you've come.
After that, my main piece of advice is: *make one thing that you actually want*.
There are two important points here:
* Make something you actually want, so you have some real motivation to do it.
* Make one single thing.
Many nalbinding tutorials violate this advice by using something like a pair of
handwarmers as a first nalbinding project. Handwarmers lend themselves well to
nalbinding because they have a simple, cylindrical structure, but they were
never great for me because they violate both points of my advice:
1. I never wear handwarmers, and if I made a pair I would never wear them, so
I had no motivation to make them.
2. Handwarmers come in pairs, which means that once you make the first one you
now need to make a second one, identical to the first if you want it to look
decent. Making two identical items is a skill of its own that you can learn,
but don't start learning on hard mode.
So for your first project, pick something that works as a single object and that
you actually *want* (or, if it's a gift, that the recipient actually wants).
I'll show some examples of things I've made next, but something like a hat or
a small scarf might be good places to start.
## Examples of Things I've Made
### Hats
Sarah hat 1
Sarah hat 2
my hat to match scarf
### Scarves
first dalarna scarf
fir tree scarf
### Kobo Holder
kobo holder
### Snake
popcorn
## Going Further
### Working with Yarn
Yarn, specifically wool yarn, is a really interesting material. I'd found the
following two videos really helpful in understanding how and why wool behaves
how it does:
TODO This video was really useful to understand why yarn gets stronger when it's
spun or twisted. Before I saw this video I had seen many nalbinding videos
where the person would say "break the new piece of yarn off of the skein", but
sometimes I would find it very hard to tear a piece of yarn off of the ball and
I didn't know why. Watching that video makes the solution clear: if you untwist
the yarn first it turns the helix of strands (stronger) into parallel strands
(weaker), making it easier to break.
TODO This video helped me understand what the magical "felting" process is
actually doing
felting video
### A Nicer Needle
If you decide you like nalbinding and want to do it more, you'll probably want
to get a more suitable needle for yourself. You can find people selling
nalbinding needles on Etsy. I've bought a few needles from [LykosLeather on
Etsy](https://www.etsy.com/shop/LykosLeather?search_query=nalbinding) and have
been happy with them for the price. For the price of one skein of yarn you can
easily get one or two bone, horn, or wood needles of different lengths and
experiment to see what you prefer.
It's worth noting that when you buy a nalbinding needle from a shop on Etsy for
a pretty cheap price (in the $10 range) it will come in a state that's maybe
a little rougher than you expect. It might not be perfectly symmetrical, there
may be some rough edges (especially inside the eye), and so on. I think this is
pretty reasonable for a $10 purchase, and it gives you an opportunity to
customize your needle a bit yourself. Creating and modifying my own tools is
one the joys of crafting for me (which explains why I love programming so much),
so I had a fun couple of evenings turning some basic needles into needles that
are *mine* and are just how I like them. Just remember to wear a mask when
you're sanding, especially if your needle is bone or horn — you probably don't
want to be breathing in bone dust.
One helpful resource for this was [this video from Valhalla
Ironworks](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvmsRZC5bLc) about making
a nalbinding needle from scratch, specifically the parts where he explains why
there's a notch in the back of the needle (to provide extra relief for the
folded yarn). Both of my favorite needles have this relief notch in the back,
which I added using sandpaper wrapper around a small metal rod. It's a small
thing, but it really does help the yarn glide more smoothly through the loops
(especially thicker yarn) and it makes them feel like *mine*.
### Other Helpful Things
While a needle and yarn is all you really *need* for nalbinding, there are a few
other little inexpensive things you can pick up that will provide some
easy quality-of-life improvements. Here are a few that I've found useful.
I picked up a small spray bottle for the water I use for felting. This is quick
and easy to use (2-3 quick sprays on the ends is enough to felt them nicely) and
it's easy to carry around without worrying that it'll leak.
[](/static/images/blog/2026/08/full/TODO.jpg)
When felting the ends together to join them, all the tutorials will say to "play
with the ends a bit" or "tease the ends apart" to fray them, so the fibers of
both strands can intermingle better. I find this difficult for some yarns,
probably because I keep my fingernails very short. My partner got me a little
metal comb that's designed to be a hair brush cleaner, but works great for
combing apart the ends of yarn. It does pull out some of the strands in the
process, but that's actually a *good* thing: you want the ends to be a little
thinner than the actual yarn because you overlap them to felt them, so if
they're full thickness the felt point will be a thicker bump in the finished
work. The comb works great, and it's tiny and really easy to carry around.
[](/static/images/blog/2026/08/full/TODO.jpg)
When shaping things with nalbinding you'll need to increase or decrease after
a certain number of stitches (e.g. "do 6 normal stitches and then decrease").
Eventually you'll be able to do stitches fast enough that you can just count
them out without getting lost, but when I was first learning I often struggled
with individual stitches enough that I would lose count of how many I had done
since the last increase. I solved this by adding a 12-sided die (called a "d12"
by D&D players) to my nalbinding kit, so I could put it on the table and rotate
the number every stitch, moving it back to 1 after the increase. You can get
a d12 at any local tabletop game store (though if you're reading this blog I bet
the odds are pretty high that there's already one in your house somewhere).
A d20 would work just as well, I've just never needed to count that high when
nalbinding yet.
[](/static/images/blog/2026/08/full/TODO.jpg)
As I mentioned earlier you can use standard safety pins for stitch markers, but
you can also buy slightly more compact ones in a yarn shop. I keep a little
pill case that has a few of them and my d12 in my kit.
[](/static/images/blog/2026/08/full/TODO.jpg)
Most nalbinding tutorials will tell you to tear or break lengths of yarn off the
ball instead of cutting it cleanly, to help it felt better, but if you have the
little comb I mentioned earlier you don't really need to do that, and some yarn
is kind of hard to tear. I got this little yarn cutter thing from the yarn
store which works great and is very small and safe to carry (the blades are very
well shielded by the metal fob). Alternatively you could get a pair of
embroidery shears, which are often in the shape of a pretty bird, but are
a little bulkier (and more likely to raise questions if you try to carry them on
a plane).
[](/static/images/blog/2026/08/full/TODO.jpg)
When you finish a project you'll want to weave the final end of the yarn back
into the nalbinding so it doesn't hang off. I picked up a cheap little crochet
hook for a couple of bucks which I've found helpful for pulling the yarn back
through the loops.
[](/static/images/blog/2026/08/full/TODO.jpg)
And finally, once you've gotten a bunch of these little things you'll want some
kind of bag to hold them all in. I use a pencil bag, but anything that makes you
happy will work!
[](/static/images/blog/2026/08/full/TODO.jpg)
### Stitches
Once you've done a few projects you'll probably be itching to try one of these
other stitches you've heard about. Give it a shot and experiment! I personally
love the Dalarna stitch because of how asymmetrical the sides are: all the
texture is shunted off to one side, leaving the other side very flat. I really
like it for scarves, because when you fold the scarf in half to wear it with the
ridges on the inside they interlock and hold the scarf together really well.
If you haven't already, when you start searching for nalbinding resources on the
internet you'll almost certainly run into
[Neulakintaat](https://www.en.neulakintaat.fi/), which is probably the most
extensive nalbinding resource around. Once you're comfortable with the basics
of nalbinding and doing Oslo stitch fluently, check our her videos to see how to
do many, *many* more kinds of stitch. I found those videos difficult to
understand as a complete beginner, but now that I've learned more I find myself
referencing them if I need to remember how to do a particular stitch.
### Multiple Colors
multiple colors just by joining new ones
multiple needle video from neulakintaat
how well it works (i.e. how well-hidden the background color is) depends on the stitch and yarn
never going to be as good as knitting
## Communities
Before I go, I wanted to point you at some of the communities I've found online
for Nalbinding. These days nalbinding is a small, weird hobby, but one of the
dreams of the early internet was to allow people with small, weird hobbies to
find each other. Despite the best efforts of the advertising industry and
venture capitalists, that dream still hasn't been completely stamped out, and
there are a couple of places to find other nalbinders online.
Unfortunately the most popular place to talk about nalbinding online these days
is a Facebook group. I dislike most social media these days, but Facebook is
*particularly* distasteful to me, so I'm not going to link to it. I'm sure you
can find the nalbinding group on there if you search.
As an alternative, Reddit's [r/nalbinding](https://www.reddit.com/r/Nalbinding/)
is relatively active (and Reddit isn't *quite* as awful as Facebook (yet)). If
you have a specific question, there's a decent chance you'll get an answer if
you post it in `r/nalbinding`.
[Ravelry](https://www.ravelry.com/) is a website for fiber art. Unfortunately
they've never added support for a `nalbinding` tag, so nalbinders have to mistag
their work as knitting or crochet, but there *is* a [Nalbinders on
Ravelry](https://www.ravelry.com/groups/nalbinders-on-ravelry) group on the site
that still has occasional activity. I like scrolling through the projects in
that group for inspiration.
I've mentioned a few YouTube channels already, but searching for "nalbinding" or
"needlebinding" on YouTube will give you many more.
And finally, not everything has to be contained on a social media platform.
Search the web for nalbinding and you'll still find personal websites sharing
their niche interests, keeping the dream of the early internet alive.