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-(:title "Learning Nalbinding"
- :snip "What I wish I knew when I started learning my first fiber art."
- :date "2026-08-30T20:15:00Z"
- :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. Here are a couple of videos that show what it looks like, to give you an
-idea:
-
-* <https://youtu.be/QFeYJ2uukrQ>
-* <https://youtu.be/wOXRO_KG8TU?t=546>
-* <https://youtu.be/NMbCEQ9xQg4?t=52>
-
-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 starting out. There are a lot of other great resources
-out there, so you should search around for those 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, come up with 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 (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. 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
-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 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
- (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 think that yarn sizes in the shop would be organized by
-something like "the diameter of the yarn in mm", but unfortunately they're
-probably not. Some typical yarn sizes are, in order (roughly) from thinnest to
-thickest:
-
-* Lace
-* Fingering
-* Sock
-* Sport
-* DK
-* Worsted
-* Arran
-* Chunky or Bulky
-* Super Chunky or Super Bulky
-* Jumbo
-
-The classification of any particular yarn isn't based on a single number like
-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), 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 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
-
-Yarn can be made of different kinds of fibers, like 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 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, like this:
-
-[](/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 keep on hand but 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 definitely *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):
-
-* Fiber content: 100% non-superwash wool.
-* Size: large, roughly the diameter of a pencil or a bit smaller (probably "bulky" or "super bulky").
-* Ply: ideally single-ply.
-* Color: A bright color you don't hate, ideally variegated if you can 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 join 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 work. 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
- pictured 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**. Do not buy these.
-
-[](/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 don'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 fast (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
-I find it much easier to keep track of each loop when I 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 helps keep things clean
-and legible. 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**. T here are two important points here:
-
-* Make something you actually want, so you have 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 simple
-hat or a small scarf might be good places to start.
-
-## Examples of Things I've Made
-
-Here are a few of the things I've made so far. If you have questions or want
-more details about any of them feel free to let me know!
-
-### Hats
-
-The first two full projects I made were two hats for my partner. I used Oslo
-stitch 1+1 F1 for the first one, with (in hindsight) some relatively small
-thread in a single color:
-
-[](/static/images/blog/2026/08/full/TODO.jpg)
-
-For the second hat I used 1+1 F2 with some chunkier thread, splicing in
-a different color every time I had to join to make a more colorful hat:
-
-[](/static/images/blog/2026/08/full/TODO.jpg)
-
-Some time later I made another hat (this one for myself) to match the scarf
-you'll see shortly:
-
-[](/static/images/blog/2026/08/full/TODO.jpg)
-
-### Scarves
-
-So far I've made two scarves. The first scarf was inspired by (well, honestly,
-more like "copied from") [this scarf](https://www.ravelry.com/projects/SouthSoundFiber/dalarna-scarf)
-on Ravelry. I used the same wool (Woolstok Worsted), layout, and stitch
-(Dalarna) as they did. The result has a few mistakes, but it turned out well
-enough to wear and I'm pretty happy with it!
-
-[](/static/images/blog/2026/08/full/TODO.jpg)
-
-The other scarf I've made was inspired by my trip home for the holidays last
-year, when I drove through central Pennsylvania. The fir trees along the side
-of the road were covered in snow and it was quite beautiful, so I wanted to make
-a scarf whose colors remind me of snow-covered fir trees. I used Dalarna stitch
-again, this time with Woolstok Tweed wool.
-
-[](/static/images/blog/2026/08/full/TODO.jpg)
-
-I love the wool, but the result is a little chunky for my taste (especially when
-folded in half to wear as a typical men's scarf). I'll have to experiment a bit
-more here.
-
-### Kobo Case
-
-I recently replaced my aging Kindle with a Kobo eReader (which I like, and would
-recommend). I wanted a case to protect it when I slip it into my
-backpack/carry on bag, so I used some chunky yarn to nalbind one that fits it
-perfectly:
-
-[](/static/images/blog/2026/08/full/TODO.jpg)
-
-### Snake
-
-The most complicated thing I've made is probably this stuffed snake for my
-partner. She has an albino corn snake (appropriately named "Popcorn") as a pet,
-so I wanted to make her a stuffed version as a gift:
-
-[](/static/images/blog/2026/08/full/TODO.jpg)
-
-I used Lopi Alafosslopi wool for this, but in hindsight a thicker yarn would
-have worked even better. I used Dalarna stitch to make the outside smooth, with
-the ridges on the inside where you can't see them.
-
-I used the two-needle method to make the yellow spots. This worked great when
-the yellow yarn was in front, but unfortunately the thinness of the yarn meant
-that when the *white* yarn was in front you could see bits of the yellow through
-the fabric. So what I ended up doing was just cutting the yellow off after each
-section was done and leaving the ends of the yellow yarn dangling inside, which
-isn't a problem since it's a closed shape.
-
-The snake is stuffed with a combination of aquarium beads for weight, linen
-scraps, and stuffing from the craft store.
-
-## Going Further
-
-### Working with Yarn
-
-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.
-
-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
-
-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*.
-
-[](/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
-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
-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
-[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
-
-Working with a single color of yarn is fine, but before long you'll probably be
-wanting to incorporate multiple colors into the things you make. There are
-a couple of ways you can do this, some of which are more complex than others.
-
-If you're making an object with multiple rows (like the scarves I showed above)
-you can simply use a different color of yarn for different rows. I find it
-helpful to plan out the rows in advance using a spreadsheet, but you can also
-just wing it if you want. I generally try to either make something perfectly
-symmetrical or avoid repetition altogether, but experiment and see what works
-for you.
-
-You can also add multiple colors to a piece by swapping yarns when you splice in
-a new length. Happy Needlebinding's videos show many great examples of this
-style. It can take a little bit of planning when you tear off a new length of
-yarn to try to avoid creating large rivers of color in the work, but with some
-practice you'll get the hang of it.
-
-You might be wondering if you can do something like the fancy colorwork you see
-in knitted things like sweaters, to create more complicated designs than the
-basic "a new color starts where the old length ran out". The short answer is
-yes, but the results will probably not be as detailed as you could have achieved
-with knitting. You can use multiple needles at once to keep separate colored
-threads running and swap between them to bring a particular color to the
-foreground as you go. I used this technique to make the yellow rings in the
-snake I showed earlier, and found [this
-video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dN-vqJTTEY8) and [this
-video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5p1dzGcblM) useful when I was figuring
-out how to do it. It's not quite as detailed as you can get with the fine yarn
-and needles you would use for knitting, but you can still make pretty things
-with it (and it's really fun once you get the hang of it), so give it a try!
-
-## 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 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.
-
-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 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
-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.
--- /dev/null Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 1970 +0000
+++ b/content/blog/2026/09/learning-nalbinding.markdown Tue Sep 01 17:09:35 2026 -0400
@@ -0,0 +1,787 @@
+(:title "Learning Nalbinding"
+ :snip "What I wish I knew when I started learning my first fiber art."
+ :date "2026-09-01T21:05:00Z"
+ :draft nil)
+
+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. Here are a couple of videos that show what it looks like, to give you an
+idea:
+
+* <https://youtu.be/QFeYJ2uukrQ>
+* <https://youtu.be/wOXRO_KG8TU?t=546>
+* <https://youtu.be/NMbCEQ9xQg4?t=52>
+
+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 starting out. There are a lot of other great resources
+out there, so you should search around for those 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][museum] 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.
+
+[museum]: https://www.eiriksstadir.is/
+
+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.
+
+In hindsight, I think I may have been primed to become interested in nalbinding
+by reading Bob Nystrom's [Consider Knitting][] article a few months before our
+trip. A lot of what he wrote resonated with me, especially around the tactile
+experience of making something. I've done some bookbinding in the past and
+really enjoy the process of making something physical with slow, steady forward
+progress, watching a tidy collection of materials on my workbench take shape
+into something over the course of a few weeks or months. But knitting itself
+seemed very overwhelming to dive into from scratch, with so many different sizes
+and shapes of needles, so many different patterns, yarns, styles of knitting,
+and such. So while I very much appreciated what he was describing, it all
+seemed very unapproachable to me, especially as someone who looks and feels very
+out of place in a yarn store and didn't feel comfortable joining an in-person
+class. So when I heard about nalbinding and started looking into it, it seemed
+like a great way to scratch the same itch that he was describing, but didn't
+seem quite as overwhelming.
+
+[Consider Knitting]: https://journal.stuffwithstuff.com/2025/05/30/consider-knitting/
+
+Much like I imagine knitting would be, nalbinding has been a very cozy activity
+for me, especially during the winter months in a cold climate. Once you get
+a little experience it's very relaxing to be able to make something while you're
+spending time with people, watching a movie, listening to an audiobook or
+podcast, or traveling as a passenger. There are also a few other reasons you
+might decide to pick up nalbinding 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 also 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. I wanted to make things I could wear without having to worry too
+much about damaging them, so the extra durability was really great for my peace
+of mind.
+
+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, come up with 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've personally found it very freeing to not have to follow
+a fixed pattern. I imagine that if I tried to follow I pattern I'd be
+constantly worried about messing it up and having to undo a ton of work to make
+it "correct", and that once I finished I'd inevitably compare my result to the
+pattern-maker's original and be unsatisfied.
+
+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.
+
+Speaking of history, nalbinding has been around for *thousands* of years (e.g.
+the Wikipedia page above mentions that 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 computer
+programming), nalbinding gives me a sense of being connected to a *much* longer
+chain of humanity. 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 my partner 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, you don't have access to someone to teach you
+in-person, and you don't feel comfortable joining an in-person class.
+
+## 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, 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 (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 (most
+of) the needles I've collected over the past year:
+
+[](/static/images/blog/2026/09/my-needles.jpg)
+
+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
+simpler: buying 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/2026/09/tapestry-needle.jpg)
+
+You'll be able to find something like it at any craft store, it'll probably be
+called something like a "tapestry needle" or a "darning needle" or a "yarn
+needle". You want something relatively long, blunt, straight, 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/2026/09/plastic-needles.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. You could use one of these to nalbind
+an entire piece and I don't think it would feel too bad at all.
+
+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 220 grit will work 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
+wash off the sugar). 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 in one
+end with a drill or (very carefully) using a knife tip to manually drill a hole.
+Use some sandpaper to enlarge and smooth the hole into an 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 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
+ (including inside the eye!) so it won't snag the yarn.
+
+The process should look something like this. The third one is the finished
+popsicle-stick nalbinding needle, which I used to make the swatch at the bottom.
+
+[](/static/images/blog/2026/09/popsicles.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 needs pretty specific yarn, so you'll
+probably want to try to find a local yarn store to buy from. It's likely
+that the small selection at somewhere like 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 think that yarn sizes in the shop would be organized by
+something like "the diameter of the yarn in mm", but unfortunately they're
+probably not. Some typical yarn sizes are, in order (roughly) from thinnest to
+thickest:
+
+* Lace
+* Fingering
+* Sock
+* Sport
+* DK
+* Worsted
+* Arran
+* Chunky or Bulky
+* Super Chunky or Super Bulky
+* Jumbo
+
+The classification of any particular yarn isn't based on a single number like
+diameter, but rather some combination of diameter, density, and overall feel.
+These are rough categories, and a yarn that one company calls worsted might
+actually be smaller than another company's arran (especially if it's 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 diameter of a pencil, so you can more easily see what
+you're doing and it'll hold itself together more securely. 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 like 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 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, like this:
+
+[](/static/images/blog/2026/09/yarn-colors.jpg)
+
+Those mixed ones like the one on the top 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 (my
+first project used 2-ply), but try for 1-ply if possible to make your life
+easier.
+
+#### 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/2026/09/yarn-winding.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 keep on hand but not going to *use* for a while, leave it unwound to avoid putting unnecessary stress on the fibers.
+2. If you're going to use it immediately, you may as well let them wind it for you.
+3. Once the yarn is wound you can't return it, so if you might not need it then definitely *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):
+
+* Fiber content: 100% non-superwash wool.
+* Size: large, roughly the diameter of a pencil or a bit smaller (probably "bulky" or "super bulky").
+* Ply: ideally single-ply.
+* Color: A bright color you don't hate, ideally variegated if you can 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 join 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 work. 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 kind that are just a fixed circle and do not open or close. **These do
+ not work for nalbinding**, they're for knitting. Do not buy these.
+
+### How 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 don'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
+is a struggle, I don't know if I'm going to be able to do this" to "wow, this
+hobby is actually kind of fun and relaxing".
+
+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 fast (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
+I find it much easier to keep track of each loop when I 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
+a point of having enough clean stitches to continue with is a struggle, so
+tidying up as you make each stitch really helps keep things clean and legible.
+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. I can nalbind for an
+hour or more at a time and my hands don't ache at the end when I hold the needle
+like this.
+
+### 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 this:
+
+**Make one thing that you actually want.**
+
+There are two important points here:
+
+* Make something you *actually want*, so you have 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 and
+ should learn at some point, 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 simple
+hat or a small scarf might be good places to start.
+
+## Examples of Things I've Made
+
+Here are a few of the things I've made so far. If you have questions or want
+more details about any of them feel free to let me know!
+
+### Hats
+
+The first two full projects I made were two hats for my partner. I used Oslo
+stitch 1+1 F1 for the first one, with (in hindsight) some relatively small
+thread in a single color:
+
+[](/static/images/blog/2026/09/full/hat-1.jpg)
+
+For the second hat I used 1+1 F2 with some chunkier thread, splicing in
+a different color every time I had to join to make a more colorful hat:
+
+[](/static/images/blog/2026/09/full/hat-2.jpg)
+
+Some time later I made another hat (this one for myself) to match the scarf
+you'll see shortly:
+
+[](/static/images/blog/2026/09/full/hat-3.jpg)
+
+### Scarves
+
+So far I've made two scarves. The first scarf was inspired by (well, let's be
+honest, copied from) [this scarf][scarf1] on Ravelry. I used the same wool
+(Woolstok Worsted), layout, and stitch (Dalarna) as they did. The result has
+a few mistakes, but it turned out well enough to wear and I'm pretty happy with
+it.
+
+[scarf1]: https://www.ravelry.com/projects/SouthSoundFiber/dalarna-scarf
+
+[](/static/images/blog/2026/09/full/scarf-1.jpg)
+
+The other scarf I've made was inspired by my trip home for the holidays last
+year, when I drove through central Pennsylvania. The fir trees along the side
+of the road were covered in snow and it was quite beautiful, so I wanted to make
+a scarf whose colors remind me of snow-covered fir trees. I used Dalarna stitch
+again, this time with Woolstok Tweed wool.
+
+[](/static/images/blog/2026/09/full/scarf-2.jpg)
+
+I love the wool, but the result is a little chunky for my taste (especially when
+folded in half to wear as a typical men's scarf). I'll have to experiment a bit
+more here.
+
+### Kobo Case
+
+I recently replaced my aging Kindle with a Kobo eReader. I wanted a case to
+protect it when I slip it into my backpack/carry on bag, so I used some chunky
+yarn to nalbind one that fits it perfectly:
+
+[](/static/images/blog/2026/09/full/kobo-case.jpg)
+
+(Side note: I've been very happy with the Kobo, give them a look if you're in
+the market for a Kindle replacement.)
+
+### Snake
+
+The most complicated thing I've made is probably this stuffed snake for my
+partner. She has an albino corn snake (appropriately named "Popcorn") as a pet,
+so I wanted to make her a stuffed version as a gift:
+
+[](/static/images/blog/2026/09/full/snake.jpg)
+
+I used Lopi Alafosslopi wool for this, but in hindsight a thicker yarn would
+have worked even better. I used Dalarna stitch to make the outside smooth, with
+the ridges on the inside where you can't see them. It's stuffed with
+a combination of glass aquarium beads (for weight), linen scraps, and stuffing
+from the craft store.
+
+I used the two-needle method to make the yellow spots. This worked great when
+the yellow yarn was in front, but unfortunately the thinness of the yarn meant
+that when the *white* yarn was in front you could see bits of the yellow through
+the fabric. So what I ended up doing was just cutting the yellow off after each
+section was done and leaving the ends of the yellow yarn dangling inside, which
+isn't a problem since it's a closed shape. I think I'll need to get some more
+practice with the two-needle color work method before I make something where
+both sides are exposed.
+
+## Going Further
+
+Once you've made one or two small things and have the basic motion in your
+hands, the nalbinding world is your oyster. There's lots of different
+directions you can go and lots of things to learn.
+
+### Working with Yarn
+
+Yarn, especially wool yarn, is a really interesting material. I found a video
+on YouTube called [The Insane Geometry of Your Clothes][insane geometry] that
+was really helpful to me in understanding it a little better, especially the
+animation starting at 2:12 where he explains why yarn gets stronger when it's
+spun or twisted.
+
+[insane geometry]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncoMYGFXmEs
+
+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 starting at 2:12) 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
+
+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 [Lykos
+Leather][lykos] and [Snyder Spindles][snyder] on Etsy 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.
+
+[lykos]: https://www.etsy.com/shop/LykosLeather?search_query=nalbinding
+[snyder]: https://www.etsy.com/shop/SnyderSpindles?search_query=nalbinding
+
+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 wrapped 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 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/2026/09/full/spray-bottle.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 saw this and 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/2026/09/full/yarn-comb.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 increase").
+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.
+
+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/2026/09/full/die-and-markers.jpg)
+
+Most nalbinding tutorials will tell you to tear or break lengths of yarn off the
+ball instead of cutting it cleanly, which will 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 even when you know the secret of untwisting
+it. I got this little yarn cutter thing from my local yarn store which works
+great and is 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 are more
+likely to raise questions if you try to carry them on a plane.
+
+[](/static/images/blog/2026/09/full/yarn-cutters.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 loose. 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/2026/09/full/crochet-hook.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!
+
+### 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
+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 [Neulakintaat][], which is probably
+the most extensive nalbinding resource around. Once you're comfortable with the
+basics of nalbinding and doing Oslo stitch fluently, check out 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
+turning to them if I need to remember how to do a particular stitch or want to
+quickly see how a new stitch is done.
+
+[Neulakintaat]: https://www.en.neulakintaat.fi/
+
+### Multiple Colors
+
+Working with a single color of yarn is fine, but before long you'll probably be
+wanting to incorporate multiple colors into the things you make. There are
+a couple of ways you can do this, some of which are more complex than others.
+
+If you're making an object with multiple rows (like the scarves I showed above)
+you can simply use a different color of yarn for different rows. I find it
+helpful to plan out the rows in advance using a spreadsheet, but you can also
+just wing it if you want. I generally try to either make something perfectly
+symmetrical or avoid repetition altogether, but experiment and see what works
+for you.
+
+You can also add multiple colors to a piece by swapping yarns when you splice in
+a new length. Happy Needlebinding's videos show many great examples of this
+style, and the second hat I showed uses this technique. It can take a little
+bit of planning when you tear off a new length of yarn to try to avoid creating
+large rivers of color in the work, but with some practice you'll get the hang of
+it.
+
+You might be wondering if you can do something like the fancy colorwork you see
+in knitted things like sweaters, to create more complicated designs than the
+basic "a new color starts where the old length ran out". The short answer is
+yes, but the results will probably not be as detailed as you could have achieved
+with knitting. You can use multiple needles at once to keep separate colored
+threads running and swap between them to bring a particular color to the
+foreground as you go. I used this technique to make the yellow rings in the
+snake I showed earlier, and found [this
+video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dN-vqJTTEY8) and [this
+video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5p1dzGcblM) useful when I was figuring
+out how to do it. It's not quite as detailed as you can get with the fine yarn
+and needles you would use for knitting, but you can still make pretty things
+with it, and it's really fun once you get the hang of it, so give it a try!
+
+## Communities
+
+Before I go, I wanted to point you at some of the communities I've found online
+for Nalbinding. These days nalbinding is mostly 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 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.
+
+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 I don't want to support
+anything related to Facebook.
+
+As an alternative, Reddit's [r/nalbinding](https://www.reddit.com/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
+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 like
+[Happy Needlebinding][], [Neulakintaat][], [Nalbound][],
+[Väkerrystä][vakerrysta], and [Shy Red Fox][]. The dream of the early internet
+is still alive and won't die unless we let it.
+
+[Happy Needlebinding]: https://needlebinding.com/
+[Shy Red Fox]: https://shyredfox.notion.site/shyredfox-crafts-blog
+[Nalbound]: https://nalbound.com/
+[vakerrysta]: https://vakerrysta.blogspot.com/
--- a/generate.lisp Sun Aug 30 21:12:04 2026 -0400
+++ b/generate.lisp Tue Sep 01 17:09:35 2026 -0400
@@ -240,8 +240,7 @@
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- " ・ " (:a :href "https://mastodon.social/@sjl" "Mastodon")
- " ・ " (:a :href "https://instagram.com/thirtytwobirds/" "Instagram")))))
+ " ・ " (:a :href "https://mastodon.social/@sjl" "Mastodon")))))
(defun t/base (title page-id body)
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