IT HAS been estimated that hand knitting was first introduced to Finland in the 15th or 16th centuries, and it spread from the western parts of the country to the east. In Lapland, in the north of Finland, knitting was known by the 17th century, but in Karelia, in the very east, where needle binding was used for producing mittens and socks for longer than in any other part of the country, knitting became common only in the 1800s.
Even after knitting was introduced to Finland, Finns had a very high regard for the older, more tricky technique of needle binding (also known as nalbinding), because it produced very strong fabric that didn’t unravel. There even was a saying that “a man who wears knitted mittens has an unskilled wife”! Needle binding is a
