Two Degrees of Separation

I like meeting people from Scandinavia. You show them your copy of The Warp-weighted Loom and they say, my mother has one of those (meaning the loom, not the book) in the garage.

How old is it, I ask.

Not old, maybe a hundred years is the reply.

Wow.  In British Columbia a hundred years practically gets you a historical plaque.

I pull out my copy of Skowronski and Reddy's Sprang.  Seen this?  Like weaving leno except there's no weft and you keep lifting and crossing threads.  No?  Yeah, the fabric does look cool.

What about nalbinding?  What is nalbinding, um, you use something like a darning needle and you make loops–oh, you did that and made mittens in school as a child.  Norway must be a fantastic fibre arts place.