Nålebinding (single-needle looping textile)
Nalbinding (tejido de una sola aguja con hilo corto)
- Date
- c. 6500 BCE · confidence low
- Place
- Nahal Hemar Cave, Judaean Desert, Israel
- Credited to
- Neolithic communities of the Levant
- Field
- Tools
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
A technique for making stretchy fabric by looping short lengths of yarn with a single thick needle, older than two-needle knitting. The oldest attributed fragments come from Nahal Hemar cave; the technique survived in Egypt, Scandinavia and Peru.
The Nahal Hemar date (c. 6500 BC) and the identification of the fragment as nålebinding rather than another looping technique are debated; unambiguous examples are much later (Coptic Egypt, Iron Age Scandinavia).
What it led to
- socks, caps and mittens made without a loom
- intermediate step towards needle knitting
- Viking and Andean textile tradition of caps and mittens