--- a/content/blog/2026/08/learning-nalbinding.markdown Sat Aug 29 22:02:47 2026 -0400
+++ b/content/blog/2026/08/learning-nalbinding.markdown Sun Aug 30 12:29:28 2026 -0400
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
(:title "Learning Nalbinding"
:snip "What I wish I knew when I started learning my first fiber art."
- :date "2026-08-29T20:15:00Z"
+ :date "2026-08-30T20:15:00Z"
:draft t)
Off and on over the past year or so I've been learning [nalbinding][nalbinding]
@@ -99,14 +99,14 @@
### 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:
+A typical nalbinding needle is a long (3-4 inches, 8-10 cm), wide (0.25-0.5
+inches, 0.5-1 cm), 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
+Collecting needles is fun, but you really only need one. 90% 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
@@ -161,10 +161,10 @@
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.
+* Aim for about 3.5 inches (9 cm) 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. 3.5 inches 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
@@ -200,9 +200,9 @@
#### 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
+starting out. You might hope that yarn sizes in the shop are organized by
+something like "the diameter of the yarn in mm", but unfortunately they're
+probably not. Some typical yarn sizes (at least here in the US) are, in order
(roughly) from thinnest to thickest:
* Lace
@@ -216,15 +216,18 @@
* Super Chunky or Super Bulky
* Jumbo
+The classification of any particular yarn isn't based on a single number like
+a diameter, but rather some combination of diameter, density, and overall feel.
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).
+denser), which is why it's very helpful to go to the store and look at the yarn
+in person.
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.
+preferably about the diameter 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
@@ -477,22 +480,18 @@
### 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:
+Yarn, specifically wool yarn, is a really interesting material. I found a video
+on YouTube called [The Insane Geometry of Your
+Clothes](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncoMYGFXmEs) that was really helpful to
+me in understanding it a little better.
-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
+This video helped me 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 (specifically the part around TODO) makes the
+solution to my problem clear: if you untwist the yarn first it turns the helix
+of strands (stronger) into parallel strands (weaker), making it easier to break.
### A Nicer Needle
@@ -525,6 +524,8 @@
thing, but it really does help the yarn glide more smoothly through the loops
(especially thicker yarn) and it makes them feel like *mine*.
+[](/static/images/blog/2026/08/full/TODO.jpg)
+
### Other Helpful Things
While a needle and yarn is all you really *need* for nalbinding, there are a few
@@ -601,9 +602,10 @@
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.
+excess bulk of the yarn 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
@@ -616,7 +618,6 @@
### Multiple Colors
-
multiple colors just by joining new ones
multiple needle video from neulakintaat
@@ -630,19 +631,18 @@
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.
+find each other. Despite the direction the internet has taken in the past
+decade or two, 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.
+The most popular place to talk about nalbinding online these days is probably
+a Facebook group. I'm sure you can find the nalbinding group on there if you
+search, but I'm not going to link it here because of how I feel about Facebook.
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`.
+is relatively active (and Reddit isn't as awful as Facebook (yet)). If you have
+a specific question, there's a decent chance you'll get an answer from a human
+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