This stitch resembles a braid stitch with parallel diagonal threads forming a solid line across the centre of the braid. Unlike most of the braid stitches, this stitch is only attached to the fabric at the beginning and the end of the line.

The working method is based on a stitch which features on the bookbinding which covered an English medieval almanac dating from the early 15th century.  It is now held by the Wellcome Collection (see the Examples section at the end of this entry).  The stitch is worked in silk gimp to form a grid pattern.

Jacqui Carey has done extensive investigation into the structure of the original stitch and this version is a reconstruction based on the available evidence.  See the References sections for details of her book which describes her research into the stitches used on the bookbinding.  N.B. the name references Danish scholar Egon H. Hansen who has documented similar structures used in the northern European tradition of nålebinding, or looped needle-netting. This descriptive name has been assigned as historic records do not give us the name by which it was known.