Old crafts

When spring is a certain thing; hästhov growing in sunny slopes and the sun warm your face if you find a place without wind and shadow, Froste like to just sit down and enjoy the sun. In his world, doing nothing is often unthinkable and so he bring work for those moments. He's making a hat, like the one he is wearing, for Vidar, as Vidar's old one simply is too worn out. He like the movements of nålbindning, over and over again, the same way. Through the first row, behind three strands behind the thumb, tighten. Under the strands around the thumb, tighten. Lift off the old strand. Start over.

The sun is warming, the bone needle is smooth against his fingers, the work is relaxing, meditative. Also, Vidar will probably look quite silly in a yellow hat. In a week there will be enough green to have to herd sheep and horses far from the village, but in this moment he can just sit down and enjoy.

Once upon a time, before knitting or crochet existed, there was nålbindning. There are some different Scandinavian names for it, but no real english word as far as I know. You use only a needle, often made out of a special bone from an elk, and woolen yarn. You use shorter strands of yarn that you rub together with spit when you need more, which make this method very useful if you can't, or wont have time to spin a lot of yarn at the same time. There are several ways to do this, and even when the structure look the same, the hand movements rarely look exactly the same. This is how I do.

I myself use a needle I carved out of birch wood and have rubbed bees wax into. For once, I used quite some references, which mean I made it through the movement several times to see how it looked and by now I've got halfway through the cuff of a sock thanks to this drawing session! It's surprising how little you know about how you move your hands while crafting. I had to correct my idea about how I do this quite a few times...

Also, once upon a time, textile crafts weren't too feminine for men. In fact, embroidery was once a thing only men did. I find it fascinating that so many crafts with soft materials are thought only to be women's work these days!