Viking Crafts

This past weekend we went to Vikingetræf, the Viking moot, at our local anthropological museum. For me the reenactment of the battle itself was interesting but not nearly as much as the arts and crafts presented at the market. So, of course, I went ahead and got myself inspired. Ehh...yet another craft I will spend my spare time on :)

In particular I am looking at two techniques: Nålebinding (a.k.a naalbinding, nålbinding, or naalebinding) or needle binding. This technique is simply a primitive version of knitting with one short needle. It was used to produce woolen hats, mittens and socks. I will show you my own work once I produce some, but for now have a look at this YouTube instruction video:

You will easily find more videos on the topic, though some will be in Finnish, Danish or Swedish.

The other, more challenging technique, is tablet (or card) weaving. This is a belt or ornamented garment trim weaving techniques and it looks like in one form or another it's been used in many different parts of the world (although do correct me on that one if you know better). It looks truly great, just have a look at any of the google images that come up with this search term. And here is a small presentation:

I will look into these two techniques soon and report back. In the long run I would also like to have a look at yarn spinning and natural ways to color yarn and fabric. So much stuff, so little time...