Put down your knitting and pick up something new – and old – with these 20 projects teaching needle-looped stitches from across the millennia.

Nalbinding – loop-manipulated textiles that use just a single needle – can be traced as far back as the Mesolithic period and is still popular in Scandinavia. The results of the various techniques can resemble wool knitting or be worked as an open mesh akin to netting; it can be dense and warm or light and airy; and can use thick woollen yarns or be worked in thin, smooth plant fibres.

This guide containing modern-day designs will teach you various nalbinding techniques and stitches dating from the Stone Age, through the Bronze Age, Ancient Egypt, into medieval Scandinavia and beyond. Sally Pointer's photographic step-by-step instructions will show you how to create your own knotless netting shopping bag, drawing on a Neolithic textile fragment; craft a messenger bag using Oslo, Mammen and Dalby stitches; and knock up practical old favourites such as pixie hats, socks, slippers and, of course, mittens!