Viking and Medieval Nålebinding Mitten Replicas

Nålebinding was in use in Finland until 19th century. Mittens, socks and hats were all produced using nålebinding (Lehtosalo-Hilander, Euran puku ja muut muinaisvaatteet). So far the Finnish finds are all mittens, based on the position of the leftover pieces in the graves. Toini-Inkeri Kaukonen's research indicates that modern knitting became known in Scandinavia first in Iceland during the 16th century, and at first it was used to make silk socks for the high society. According to the justice books modern knitting became known in Finland in the 17th century, about the same time as in Denmark, Sweden, Estonia and Lithuania. Many historians write that the nuns in the cloister of Nådendal, near Turku, were the first to do modern knitting, but based on surviving Finnish medieval files that is an error. Mrs. Kaukonen writes that in the text where it is written that Duke John, son of the Swedish king Gustaf Vasa, from the castle of Turku (he ruled the castle in 1550-1570's) did order the nuns of the Nådendal cloister to make him some mittens 'made in the common method of the country', 'the common method' means nålebinding, which differs from the opinion of many other professors. In the books of the castle of Turku from 16th century there are some silk socks, but according to Pylkkänen they all were imports from Europe. (Kaukonen, Kotiteollisuus)

Mrs. Mari Vadén has investigated some medieval textiles found in Turku now held in Turku county museum. According to her some of the surviving textiles were knit. The biggest piece (20459/864) is about 27 cm x 6,5 cm, plain knit, reddish brown in color with a dark thin line on 7th row, Z-spun S-plaid yarn. It has 1,7 loops and 3 lines per centimeter. It was dated between 1440-1550. She compares this piece to ones that are found in London (Crowfoot) and finds that they resemble each other very much. The London pieces were from a cap with ear flaps. She very strongly considers this to be a confirmation that people in Finland could knit already in those days (Vadén, p. 11-12).

(Torsteisson, p.164)

I would not make any decisions based on just one find; in my opinion we need more information and/ or more samples. I find it more likely that these pieces were an import from England, or left by an Englishman or other European visitor in Turku. Unfortunately. There is also a possibility that those pieces were made by nålebinding, because the simplest of its methods produces a knit like appearance. An example of this is an Egyptian sock (Hald). I would truly like to see the piece myself.

Crowfoot writes that despite a Viking sock that has been found from York there are no other nålebinding finds from England so far. She thinks it is a sign of the fact that only Scandinavians did nålebinding, Europeans did knitting. In her opinion the York sock was a transport of the Vikings (p.72-73). Europeans could knit during the 14th century: there are pictures from the 14th century where German ladies are knitting (Gutarp, p. 50) and from a 14th century German picture where the madonna is knitting.

After knitting became common in Finland, since it was five times faster way of making mittens, nålebibding was slowly and almost totally forgotten in the western parts of Finland. In the East nålebinding was in use until modern times together with knitting, because felted, thicker nålebinding mittens are more practical when going to the forest to work (Kaukonen, Kotiteollisuus). Nålebinding is still taught to pupils in Finnish handcraft schools, but as a specialization using a very slow, unpractical method with a thick, grey yarn.

Knitting Madonna from Visit of the Angel by Master Bertram of Minden, 14th century (Crowfoot, p.56).

From the Tuukkala cemetery at Mikkeli there were found from male grave, dated to 1200-1300 AD, a thick mitten piece (KM 9770:4) which was nålebinded from thick s-spun Z-plied yarn of white or very light color. The thickness of its yarn was 1,4-2,4 millimeters. It was made two loops on the thumb, in Hansen's language UUOO/UUOOO. From the previous line was taken two loops. (Vajanto, p. 27)

My reconstruction of Tuukkala mitten 1. © Satu Hovi 2005. I had some yarn bought from Estonia left; it is a bit coarse and tight. I put it into water with madder, but due to the yarn quality the color did not stay, but in to this nålebinding piece, which is supposed to be light color, it suits perfectly. Krista Vajanto has mentioned to me that nowadays it is difficult or even impossible to see whether one was white or any light color one thousand years ago.

There is a big leftover piece from the mitten (supposed-to-be) back. There are some traces from one color embroidery. The yarn used in it was s-spun, thickness 0,8-1 millimeter. The embroidery was made with loopstich and crosstich. It was green, blue or brown in color. (Vajanto, p. 27) From the photos taken by Krista Vajanto from the piece stored in the cellar of Finnish National Museum in Helsinki those leftover yarns are easily distinguishable. Also Tyyni Vahter has made a small size drawing of the embroidery 50 years ago, when there probably were more yarn visible than nowadays.

Copyright Satu Hovi 2005.

Using information from both sources I made a drawing of the leftover embroidery. I also made some sketches to fit the picture to a hand back of a male's mitten. From my sketches I chose the one which pleased me most. I had two main thoughts where to start sketching. First was to look after Wiking symbols. Lady Bertrade Deslipins (pseud.), who has a talent to give new ideas over things, suggested the tree of life, which would fit well to mittens packed with a dead person during his/her burial. My idea was to search after Byzantine patterned silks and find the forms there: if an ancient lady saw some expensive silks on the market and liked the pattern, she went home and redrew it as well as she could remember to an embroidery on a mitten.

My reconstruction from Tuukkala mitten 2. © Satu Hovi 2005. From the Tuukkala cemetery in Mikkeli there is a piece of nålebinding, too (KM 9969:14). The grave was dated to 13th century and it was a female grave. This mitten is made from s-spun unpiled yarn, thickness around 1,3-1,5 millimeters, color white or light, maybe yellow. The knitting method of it was complicated; it was sewn using four loops in a thumb. In Hansen's language it means UUUOO/UUOOOO. From the previous line it was taken two loops. The mitten was felted before the arm end was embroidered. The mitten has two-color, probably blue and red, embroidery in the arm end.of the mitten. Yarns are z-spun, thickness 0,4-0,7 millimeters. They look sharp and shiny like being made yesterday. (Vajanto, p. 27 and meeting 17.4.2003)

From woman's grave 1 from the Kekomäki cemetery in Kaukola, eastern Finland was found a fine piece of nålebinding (KM 2489:49). The grave was dated around 1200 AD. Vahter and Kaukonen, who both write about it, claim that it is possibly a sock, which they base on the Finnish 19th century folklore finds, where this kind of looping were used in sock arms. Krista Vajanto and Pirkko-Liisa Lehtosalo-Hilander both think it is a mitten, because of the location of the piece in the grave.(conversation). The piece was found from the waist, over upper apron part, where normally mittens are located in the grave finds. Aprons were hung double around the belt in the waist in women's dress of those times. The thickness of the yarn of every color is 0,9-1,1 mm, s-spun z-plied (Vajanto, p.27). Though I have done some spinning, I could not imagine doing yarn this thin, when it is plied it is 1 mm thick, while unpiled…. According to Mrs. Vajanto the yarn I have chosen is similar to the one in the grave find, being alike in the amount of plies per centimeter and strength (meeting, 17.3.2003).

This picture shows the technique of the Kaukola mitten made from thick yarn (from Kaukonen's article). The original mitten is three colored: white or yellow, red or brown and blue, one line in each color. It is made using a method where two loops are in a finger, (Vajanto, 8.2.2003, Kaukonen, kinnasompelu…). In Hansen's language it means UOO/UUOO. From the previous line is not taken one loop from the top, it is taken one from the middle of the previous loop line, from the converse direction than it normally were taken. That makes the lines to be very low and gives a wavelike look.

It was very slow work to make this product. Because the yarn is so thin, I could not work with my usual bone needle; I had to use a thin metallic one. In ancient times they could make thinner needles for this purpose. A thick bone needle left the loops too loose. I could use my thumb while sewing this. It gave a stabile result and was faster than using a stick instead of my thumb. An extra tightening was needed before forming a new loop, though.

Another find from Köyliö, cemetery of Vanhakartano, female grave 28 dated to the middle of the 11th century was a nålebinding (KM 8723:315) made from white Z-spun S-plied yarn and made in a typical Finnish way with two or more loops in the thumb (Tomanterä, p.118). Also in Köyliö, cemetery of Köyliönsaari, a nålebinding (KM 723:308) which was made of white z-spun s-plied yarn, made with two loops in the thumb. (Vajanto, p.24 and 27) was found from a female grave which was dated to 11th century.

A nålebinding find (KM 12687) found from a female grave in Kirkkomäki in Kaarina and dated to 11th century is too small to be identified, being less than 1 square centimeters in size (Tomanterä, p.118). It was z-spun s-plied and made using two loops in a thumb, in Hansens method UUOO/UUOOO.(Vajanto, p.28) The piece found from Rikala in Halikko, male grave Fa, dated to the 12th century, (KM 12841:29), was made with white Z-spun S-plied yarn made in the technique with two or more loops in the thumb (Tomanterä, p. 119), in Hansens language UUOO/UUOOO

Felted nålebinded mitten I made. I used a yarn that is 50% dog hair. Hair was mixed with wool in ancient times.From the same cemetery in Rikala in Halikko another piece of nålebinding was found (KM 12690:475. It is reddish brown, probably felted from both sides. (Vajanto, p.28) The structure is not visible, but horizontal lines can be seen, which are typical for nålebinding (Tomanterä, p.118). The are also other nålebinding finds from Finland (Tomanterä, p.118, Krista Vajanto, 8.2.2003), but they are unidentified and/or unpublished.