This Saturday, we went to visit some friends who had a stall (and a real viking tent!) at a viking market, selling home-made nettle-cream, among other things. As we sat there on wooden stools outside their tent, drinking beer from drinking horns in the October sun, something caught my eye. Across the way, one of the stalls had many colors of yarn on display, so I went over to investigate. The yarn was plant-dyed, and the women who owned the stall were both doing nalbinding, or needlebinding, a technique which was used in the Viking age, before knitting and crochet. I've seen it a lot at Viking markets, and I had been wanting to try it for a while, so I bought four skeins of yarn and a wooden needle and was given a few words of advice, as well.
The red wool is dyed with madder, the pale green with birch leaves, the yellow with tansy and the purple with logwood.
When I got home, I found this great video by a nice Finnish woman explaining exactly how the technique works. This particular stitch is called the Mammen stitch, and was recommended to me by the women at the market for its strength and density. I've been trying it out, and this is what it's looking like so far, the first two rounds of a wristwarmer:
