As a reenactor on the ice age farm (september 2018) i saw a woman who was needlebinding a hat that had no holes, since i have a bold head (i quickly get cold if i don’t wear a hat or cap). My curiosity was immediately aroused and i had one thought, i should be able to learn needlebinding. Ordered a book on internet, unfortunately Norwegian language with my phone pieces of text translated and luckily there were many pictures in it and just try…..
I already made a needle from the stick of an ice cream, when i put this idea on Facebook i immediately received reactions about how many needles do you need?! a piece of 4 is always handy because you are often working on several needlebinding projects, a few for your wife, maybe for your neighbor. So first an ice cream and then……don’t throw the stick away and make a nice needle of it.
After a while i made my needles from bamboo. In the beginning i used acryl thread which again consisted 2 threads and tried again, immediately threw this result away and tried again and again cursed a bit, cursed more…..because knitting fishing nets, making rope, spinning wool, making fire (with flint), knitting loom, and even crochet, fly fishing and fly tying (instructor), stone sculpting and drawing i also learned, and it was just this needlebinding that didn’t work !!!
YouTube
Stopped trying for a few weeks and….watched YouTube movies then made a print screen and tried again and bought a few more books this time Danish, Swedish and a German book and i know that language and it is also a very good book. After i had read my German book again it went a little bit better…
Wool instead of acrylic
On the YouTube videos i saw that she was using a single woolen thread and then it got better again, the swearing disappeared and my confidence improved a lot, especially when i started using also my middle finger. In all the books and on all the YouTube films the thumb and the forefinger are used for needlebinding and this caused spinning wool around my thumb, cramps in my fingers, swearing and a whole lot of frustration and stress.
And the middle finger
Holding the thumb, index finger and middle finger together creates a triangle ( in the drill bit of a drill is also held in the middle at 3 points).
The needle goes through the created triangle of my thumb and two fingers, no cramped hold of wool around my thumb but…… A needle that can be used easily and relaxed the wool no longer turned around my thumb and now it went it not better but super good, it made me really happy !!! The stiches became the same size and evenly, all the frustation and stress disappeared like snow in the sun. An NEW hobby, passion, lifestyle, addiction and vacation in my head was a fact.
My challenge
The next challenge is to make a hat for my bald head without the draft holes.
my first felted hat in oslo stich.