Nalbinding Workshop with Donna Kallner

Our guild hosted Donna Kallner for a Nalbinding Workshop on Friday July 12 th. Donna has been teaching Nalbinding, Looping, and Natural dye classes for many years. She has had classes at Sievers Fiber Arts School, Midwest Weavers Conferences, Michigan League of Hand weavers conferences and at many guilds around the Midwest.

Members of our guild were very enthusiastic about learning Nalbinding. Donna did not disappoint.
Nalbinding is a looping technique usually associated with making warm wooly wearable items. It is a stitched structure the entire working thread passes through on each stitch. The structure is very stable and cannot unravel making it perfect for winter work and play.

We learned to cast on for a round start, the Oslo stitch using our thumb as a gauge.
 

Cast on for the round start

We also learned to increase, decrease, chain and make things without having to follow a pattern.

Donna also taught us how to add yarn to our project by using the spit splice and the Russian join. As well as starting from an oval start adding a new color and a few more advanced stitches.


She also challenged us to complete a project as our take home assignment. Many of us are still working on it. With the help of Donna's refresher videos she shared with us on her website.

You can see the group was working hard to pick up the technique. It will require a few more hours to produce a finished project. But it was a fun and interesting day.

Thanks Donna for a interesting and challenging workshop.  We actually had a few finished items at our August show and tell.

Melissa finished her beer cozie and sent me a picture.

Dawn finished her round mat and felted it.

Phyllis made some egg cozies, a mat, and has two hats in the works.

Beer Cozie

Phyllis mat from the round start

Phyllis's egg cozies

Dawn's mat from the round start