Anne Marie Decker

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.

NOW: Lost Red Sock – 9804 & Found Mate – GT 4498 For today’s Nalbound Object of the Week we get a two for one special. The left sock was in Berlin, but has been missing since World War II. Luckily, they had taken really nice (B&W) photo…

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...

NOW: Bakongo Nkutu (Prestige Cape) – Af1853,0713.1 Continuing with another African Nalbound Object of the Week, this stunning nkutu (prestige cape) comes from mid-19th century Congo. While the tradition of net-like garments being worn by high ranki…

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.

NOW: Bakongo Nkutu (Prestige Cape) – Af1853,0713.1 Continuing with another African Nalbound Object of the Week, this stunning nkutu (prestige cape) comes from mid-19th century Congo. While the tradition of net-like garments being worn by high ranki…

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...

NOW: Red hat with tassel – 9318 If you are in Berlin this week, you can catch the Nalbound Object of the Week on display in the Auf unbetretenen Wegen: Georg Schweinfurth und die Ägyptologie exhibition at the Neues Museum before …

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...

NOW: Mitten with embroidered cuff – D7403b While I’ve mentioned this Nalbound Object of the Week in an earlier post, link here, I did not include the find data. So this week we take a closer look at the 17th century mitten found in th…

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

NOW: Viscachas figural effigy – 46-77-30/7651C I hope everyone’s winter holiday season is going well and that the new year be all you need it to be. For this week’s Nalbound Object of the Week we got a viscacha figure/effigy. I love…

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.

NOW: Child’s sock with orange, blue and yellow stripes – III 15474 For a person that has spent a lot of time examining stockings, this is an excellent time of the year. The Museum der Kulturen Basel has the largest collection of Egyptian nalbinding1 and they just …

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...

NOW: Arizona Cliff-dweller skullcap – 14-5-10/A1260 Generally when we talk about nalbinding from the Southwest United States, we are talking about socks or shoe-socks or possibly leggings. This week’s Nalbound Object of the Week is unusual in …

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

Blue and white knit stockings Nalbinding isn’t the only corpus that is spread out across many institutions. Recently a number of museums have added to their online collection databases and we are now able to see quite a f…

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...

YouTube video by Anne Marie Decker Nalbinding: Simple Mammen/Korgen Start

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.

Charting the Nalbinding of the Nile January 21st, 2019, I was honored to give a presentation entitled Charting the Nalbinding of the Nile (click on title to view recording: 30 minutes) at the Textile Archaeology of Egypt and Sudan&#8…

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 🧶

Charting the Nalbinding of the Nile January 21st, 2019, I was honored to give a presentation entitled Charting the Nalbinding of the Nile (click on title to view recording: 30 minutes) at the Textile Archaeology of Egypt and Sudan&#8…

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...

Charting the Nalbinding of the Nile January 21st, 2019, I was honored to give a presentation entitled Charting the Nalbinding of the Nile (click on title to view recording: 30 minutes) at the Textile Archaeology of Egypt and Sudan&#8…

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...

Återskapat: Återskapat - 103 - Nalbinding In this episode we talk about the art and history of the nalbinding technique. When did it start? Where was it used? Did the vikings use nalbinding?     With: Anne Marie Decker, Nele Nuutin...

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.

Socks in the ROM Exciting news. As I was preparing for my presentation in January, the Royal Ontario Museum posted photos (including some shots of the bottoms) of all 11 of their 3rd-7th century cross-knit nalbound…

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...

Charting the Nalbinding of the Nile January 21st, 2019, I was honored to give a presentation entitled Charting the Nalbinding of the Nile (click on title to view recording: 30 minutes) at the Textile Archaeology of Egypt and Sudan&#8…

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...

Definitely a highlight!

YouTube video by Anne Marie Decker Nalbinding: Simple Mammen/Korgen Start

Here is how I start people: youtu.be/m9PTMpQTZZM
I recommend a worsted or bulky weight yarn in a light, but not white, color.
It's the same stitch I use in my instruction manual: Nalbinding Made Easy tanglefairies.etsy.com/listing/1365...

Charting the Nalbinding of the Nile January 21st, 2019, I was honored to give a presentation entitled Charting the Nalbinding of the Nile (click on title to view recording: 30 minutes) at the Textile Archaeology of Egypt and Sudan&#8…

Nalbinding as a technique is found around the world and across significant swaths of time. Very little in the Viking Era, even though that is often where people hear about it. Here are a bunch of Roman Era Egyptian examples: nalbound.com/2019/04/06/c...

60th International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo – May 2025 Just before I left for Ghana, I received formal notice that my presentation proposal, submitted in September, has been accepted. I will be presenting “Knee-length nalbound stockings from medi…

A copy of the abstract can be found at: nalbound.com/2024/11/07/6...

Get more from Nalbound - Anne Marie Decker on Patreon creating Research into the history of the Nalbinding technique

If you'd like to help sponsor my research, I'd greatly appreciate your patronage. A link to my Patreon is www.patreon.com/nalbound?utm...

My presentation has been accepted. "Knee-length nalbound stockings from medieval Scandinavia: Two previously unexamined examples" will be in the DISTAFF & MEDATS sponsored session "For Dress and Textiles (1): Tools and Techniques" May 2025 International Congress on Medieval Studies in Kalamazoo, MI