Beans and faces make up today's Nazca Nalbound Object of the Week. This 2nd cent CE tunic border is in the The Walters Art Museum The central band has beans worked out of the upper edge and fully haired faces hanging below. The “hair” fringe is in very nice condition.
nalbound.com/2026/03/03/n...
*This is not the only plant based sock found in Egypt, but they are less common than wool finds.
Compound nalbinding variants don't start to show up in the archeological record until the end of the 1st Millenium elsewhere, so future scientific dating of these socks is super important to our understanding of exactly when the compound variants of nalbinding began.
due to its imprecise usage and cultural implications) based on conventional /art historical dating applied in the late 19th & early 20th century. More recent finds and the radiocarbon dated Egyptian hats all fall into the 11th/12th century.
We don't have solid dating for any of these Egyptian socks made in compound nalbinding variants. They are presumed to be Coptic Era (a informal designation for generally Late Roman Egypt/Late Antique (3rd−4th centuries) and Byzantine Egypt (4th−7th centuries) that has fallen out of favor
Some incorporated in the fabric of the sock (toe & heel edge) and some fragments carried along two rows of the midfoot in what looks like added embellishment. The image is of the sole of the sock and shows the wedge heel very nicely.
Today's Nalbound Object of the Week is another Egyptian sock, but this one is a bit unusual in that it is primarily made of linen.* It does have some dark blue/green and yellow wool on it.
nalbound.com/2026/02/24/n...
They are also extremely similar in size, shaping, color, stitch choice and density and one is for the left and the other for the right foot. We are very lucky that photos were taken before the left sock was lost. But if you happen to find it, I'd be happy to hear it.
For today’s Nalbound Object of the Week we get a two for one special. The left sock was in Berlin, but has been lost since WWII. Its likely mate is in Ludwigsbourg. The two socks were both bought from the same dealer in 1890 and listed as presumably from Akhmim, Egypt.
nalbound.com/2026/02/18/n...
The British Museum has included some lovely detailed photos in their online catalog, so I was able to zoom in and highlight the path of the loops. And yes, that is a knot you see connecting the new length.
Made from raffia palm fiber, the stitch has often been mistaken for sprang as the stitch doesn't just intralace with previous stitches, it interlinks with them before crossing to form a new loop.
Continuing with the theme of African nalbinding, this week's Nalbound Object of the Week is another Congalese Prestige Cape dating to pre-1853. Made from raffia palm fiber, the stitch has often been mistaken for sprang.
nalbound.com/2026/02/10/n...
This week's Nalbound Object of the Week is a lovely red hat with a blue and yellow silk patterned wrap around its point/tassel from 11th-13th century CE Arsinoë/Krokodilopolis, Egypt. It's one of the few artifacts that include more than one type of nalbinding.
nalbound.com/2026/02/04/n...
This week we take a closer look at the 17th cent mitten found in the ramparts of Copenhagen for our Nalbound Object of the Week. Like many mittens of this time, it has some tar stains. If you look very closely, there is some 2-toned embroidery around the cuff edge. nalbound.com/2026/01/20/n...
And with the Museum der Kulturen Basel's recent publishing of their online collection, I look forward to being able to show you the nalbound collection in my Nalbound Object of the Week series. nalbound.com/2025/12/23/n... (In and amongst other nalbinding from around the world.)
We are honored to have been able to publish our article on that sock in ATR which I talk about and link to here: nalbound.com/2023/01/31/n...
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Hard to believe it has been 7 years since I was able to traveltothe Museum der Kulturen Basel. I posted a bit about our examinations of the slip stich crocheted sock that had been misinterpreted as nalbinding here:
nalbound.com/2021/02/21/c...
#nalbinding #museum
For today's Nalbound Object of the Week we have some true figural work out of Peru. This time it's a singular effigy figure, not a border of figures. And, it's a viscacha, which are so adorable!
nalbound.com/2025/12/30/n...
#nalbinding #Peru #SimpleLooping
* Who am I kidding? I'm always thinking about socks... (or mittens, or hats, or.., but mostly socks)
** This is a very old art historical based dating. There has been no scientific dating of compound Egyptian nalbound socks.
As the holidays gear up, I find myself thinking of stockings...*
So this week's Nalbound Object of the Week is a lovely example of Egyptian compound nalbinding. Ostensibly from the 4th century,** but its specific find location and strata was not recorded.
nalbound.com/2025/12/23/n...
Today's Nalbound Object of the Week is hat/cap from the Cliff-Dweller culture in what is now Northeastern Arizona. The shoe-socks from this region are more well known, so I am happy to be able to include this cap in the series.
nalbound.com/2025/11/18/n...
#nalbinding #nalbound #nålbindning
If you are interested in the early blue & white knitted socks found in Egypt, the Museum der Kulturen Basel has put their collection online.
As the search engine is a bit tricky as yet, I put together a blog post that includes them and a few from other institutions: nalbound.com/2025/11/04/b...
This is how I start people. It's not the Cross-knit Looping variant seen in the sock above, but a compound variant found apparently somewhat contemporaneously. youtu.be/m9PTMpQTZZM
I recommend a worsted weight yarn in a light but not white color to start.
There are around 70 examples, some fragmentary, of this particular variant of nalbound sock, now spread out in museums around the world. I had the honor of including photographs of quite a few of them in my presentation Charting the Nalbinding of the Nile. nalbound.com/2019/04/06/c...
Two nalbound hand covers, at front the Åsle mitten in reddish-brown yarn and wide cuff. Åsle mitten lays on white support blank. At back the Kalmar glove is greyish brown and and the researcher is holding the wrist open with gloved hand. Kalmar glove lays on paper little lower than the Åsle mitten.
One of the absolute amazing moments on our trip to Sweden was seeing these two hand covers side by side. At the front, probably the most known #Nalbinding mitten, the Åsle mitten and at the back the Kalmar glove. (Yes, we also saw the Lödöse mitten, but in different museum). #CraftingScience 🧶
There are around 70 examples, some fragmentary, of this particular variant of nalbound sock, now spread out in museums around the world. I had the honor of including photographs of quite a few of them in my presentation Charting the Nalbinding of the Nile. nalbound.com/2019/04/06/c...
There are around 70 examples of this particular variant of nalbound sock, now spread out in museums around the world. I had the honor of including photographs of quite a few of them in my presentation Charting the Nalbinding of the Nile. nalbound.com/2019/04/06/c...
While I was in Sweden to examine some of their medieval nalbinding, I had the chance to sit down with Återskapat and my friends Nele and Ingela and have a good long chat about nalbinding. You can join us at the table here: aterskapat.libsyn.com/terskapat-10...
It's the inventory label. They used to sew them onto the object. This is better than some where they wrote the inventory number directly on the object.
When Barbara Thomas (née Köstner) went to the ROM to study their collection, they made a nice video. Note: Tarim stitch is a misnomer. nalbound.com/2019/04/21/s...
