Sally Pointer, Experimental Archaeologist

How did people make and use the textiles we’ve created for millennia? From nalbinding to netting to bast fiber processing, Sally Pointer looks for answers by working with her hands.

Some fiber crafts are as old as humanity, even recorded in cave paintings. Some fiber crafts are so little practiced now that they’re considered endangered. For textile historian (and prehistorian) Sally Pointer, they’re entirely vital and full of new discoveries.

The Heritage Crafts Red List of Endangered Crafts tracks more than 150 crafts in the UK practiced by so few people that they may disappear within a generation or so, and it names the known practitioners. Sally’s name appears twice, once for nalbinding and once for bast fiber processing. Those are far from her only fiber fascinations; she is currently at work on a book about netting, and she speaks passionately about splicing and cordage-making.

Nalbinding is plagued by misconceptions: that it’s solely a Viking craft, an early form of knitting, only interesting for reenactors, or slow to work. Nalbinding—It’s Not Knitting, Sally’s 2026 book, presents it as a useful contemporary craft still practiced around the world. The technique is as useful for creating twenty-first-century socks as for the ancient Egyptian examples excavated from archaeological sites.

As an experimental archaeologist, Sally not only looks at ancient textile finds; she tries to understand how they were made and used. Looking at an artifact and guessing how it was used can breed misconceptions; experimental archaeologists test those guesses to learn what it was like for the people who used them. “This is almost allowing us to touch the hand of the original maker for a fleeting moment,” Sally says. “And that is spine-chilling at times.”

Links

Sally’s website

Sally’s current book is Nalbinding—It’s Not Knitting

Lime Bast: Harvest, Preparation and Use by Sally Pointer and Chiz Harward

Find Sally’s free videos on fiber processing and textile techniques at YouTube

Her online and in-person class list is available at Sally Pointer Heritage Education

Red List of Endangered Crafts