‘Viking Knitting’

One of the most fun elements of watching the Game of Wool on Sunday evenings is following along with the WhatsApp group for Local Yarn Shops. There are some very stringent views expressed on there, combining a mix of support for the contestants, complaints about the challenges, concerns about the approach of the judges. I will miss it when it is all over. Last Sunday the contestants faced an individual jewellery making challenge and a team lace-knitting one.

It was good to finally see a proper technical challenge on the show – one that really allowed the knitters to showcase their knowledge and skill and that in spite of having to knit lace with linen yarn on 7mm needles – normally it would be cotton or wool on much finer needles. They had to knit a lace panel for a light shade, the point being made that shining light through lace helps to emphasise the stitching (and the mistakes). The main comment on the WhatsApp group was approval that finally the show had mentioned the importance of blocking your work – the beauty of lace only really comes through once the fabric has been blocked – that is dampened and stretched out to dry. I have blogged about lace knitting previously. I have to say that I find it a very hard technique because it requires concentration, counting and being able to read your knitting. I have major ambitions, but the Stephen West Glittering Snowscape shawl which I cast on in February has had to be undone because I had made so many mistakes and lace is very unforgiving. I am still knitting it and doing better this time but I have a suspicion it won’t be finished much before next February.

There is no need to go into detail about the jewellery challenge. Everyone created lovely pieces using a variety of yarns and techniques. No one on the WhatsApp group argued with the decision to choose Lydia as the winner – her necklet made of a Tunisian crochet fabric was truly beautiful. But we were all really interested in the piece that Simon was making out of metal. The voice over told us that he was using a technique known as ‘Viking knitting’. In fact what he was doing was nalbinding. I would have missed this had the WhatsApp group not got a bit cross about it.

Nalbinding or Nålebinding literally means ‘binding with a needle’ and is a method of creating fabric that predates both knitting and crochet. In English it is known as “knotless netting”, “knotless knitting”, or “single-needle knitting”. The oldest bit of fabric identified using this technique goes back to around 6500 BCE and was found in the Judaean desert, but there have been fragments found in Denmark dating back to 4200 BCE and in Peru dating between 300 BCE and 300 CE. We have amazing ancient Egyptian socks from the same period together with the ‘Coppergate Sock’ – a Viking sock that was found during excavations in York. Fabric historians have to inspect fabrics carefully and follow the journey of yarn in order to work out whether it has been knitted or created using nalbinding.

The nalbinding technique differs from knitting and crochet in that it uses short lengths of yarn and a single-eyed needle that is often broad and flat. Historically, the needles were made of wood, bone or ivory. In its simplest form, the needle is passed through a seed loop to form a new loop, taking care to avoid tightening either into a firm knot. The needle is then passed through the new loop, repeating the process until a chain of desired length has been formed. Subsequent stitches are formed in the same manner but are also joined laterally to the corresponding stitch in the chain. Usually items are worked in the round – that is you continue creating the stitches in one direction, forming tubes or spirals, but work can also be turned to be worked ‘flat’. The lengths of yarn used are no more than 2m long and are joined by felting them together, which means that this fabric is usually made from wool, although other fibres can be used. In the 1990s a whole system, the Hansen Code, was developed to create patterns and communicate about the technique. Despite this, it is only practised by a small amount of people, as far apart as Peru and Denmark (and one of my customers in New Zealand). Calling it ‘Viking knitting’ does not tell the whole story, which is why the WhatsApp group was a bit irritated.

The contestant in the The Game of Wool, Simon, used nalbinding to create a lovely necklace out of metal for his wife. It was fascinating to watch him work, and I was sorry he did not get more praise from the judges for trying out a difficult and rare technique. I suspect that I was not the only person who felt that.

We have the semi finals of the programme on Sunday. I cannot remember what the challenges will be, so look forward to it with interest. I have been brooding a lot about the programme and why it has been essentially unsatisfactory, for me at least, and hope to put my thoughts together for a later blog.