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+(: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)). Nalbinding is a very
+old fiber art which predates knitting by thousands of years. In modern times
+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
+
+Where to buy on etsy
+
+making improvements
+
+video about needle structure
+
+### Other Helpful Things
+
+Spray bottle
+
+Hair brush cleaner
+
+d12 for stitch counting
+
+stitch markers
+
+yarn cutter/scissors
+
+crochet hook to pull ends through
+
+bag to hold tools in
+
+### Stitches
+
+I like Dalarna
+
+### Yarns
+
+Visit the yarn store
+
+### Multiple Colors in Parallel
+
+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
+
+Reddit
+
+Ravelry
+
+Facebook
+
+