Nalbinding is a technique with was used in about the same way as knitting, before knitting was known. The oldest finds of nalbinding from Scandinavia are from the Viking age. Of the four known finds from Viking context, three are mittens; one from Oslo, one from Novgorod and one relatively unknown from Lödöse in Sweden (not to be confused with the more well-known, later mitten from Lödöse). The Viking age nalbound mittens are made of wool, straight or with a very slight curve and sewn with relatively simple nalbinding stitches without turning the needle, the Oslo stitch and a Finnish stitch. It is interesting to note that the one mitten NOT sewn with the Oslo stitch is the mitten from Oslo.

The youngest of the three mittens is from the Lödöse in the 11th century and is interesting because it is made from a very losely spun yarn with long fibres and is later given a long nap. One theory is that it has been used inside a leather glove.

The nalbound mitten from Iceland which was dated to the Viking age is now dated to much later. Our pattern booklet about Nalbinding will be updated, hopefully next yeare, to adjust to the new knowledge.

The picture to the left showing a pair of reconstructed Oslo mittens during a snowball fight is taken by Iduna Pertoft Sundarp.
The picture to the right shows the original Oslo mitten and is from the Unimus portal.

You can buy our patterns and descriptions of nalbound mittens here: Nalbinding