Newspaper yarn project 1: The Donut/Bagel

The Donut is a beanbag made entirely out of newspaper. 

The Bagel is an "economy" version of the donut which uses half the amount of newspaper and needs to be stuffed. 

Stuffing material can be styrofoam packing peanuts (which are abundant in many companies dealing with shipping/receiving goods; and are often discarded), plastic bags, old clothes, soft toys, etc. The newspaper acts as a "cage" to hold and contain the stuffing material. 

Yarn needed:

For Donut- At least 500 pages/strips

For Bagel- At least 250-300 pages/strips

Instructions:

E-wrap cast on and e-wrap stitch until almost out of yarn. 

This is how The Donut looks like after knitting and during bind-off.

Leave at least 150 cm of yarn to bind off. Use any method of bind-off except gathered/drawstring bind-off.  

For Donut: Starting from one end of the knitted tube, keep rolling the material onto itself. 

For Bagel: Prepare stuffing material. The plastic bags of packing peanuts were heat-sealed using an iron. Place baking sheet over plastic bags before ironing to prevent the plastic from burning.

Bags of packing peanuts, ends knotted.

Wrap newspaper tube over and around stuffing material. Using yarn end, sew up both ends of newspaper tube.

Stuffing the Bagel. Bottom view.

From above

Knitting with your loom

Knitting with this oversized loom is no different from knitting on a small loom, so many techniques can be learnt by watching youtube videos. 


Basic e-wrap knit
See Youtube tutorial by Isela Phelps for greater clarity. 
The e-wrap knit stitch produces stretchy stitches. 

Leave a tail of few inches, wrap yarn around nails as shown.
Do not wrap yarn too tightly.

Continue wrapping yarn around the nails. There are now two loops on each peg.

At the starting point, lift the bottom loop over the top loop and into the centre of the loom.
Do the same for every peg. 

Continue making loops and lifting loops until piece is of desired length.

Binding off/removing work from loom

I used the method shown in this youtube tutorial to bind off my work. 

Making newspaper yarn

Preparing materials

Collect a least a week's worth of newspapers. For larger newspapers like The Straits Times, cut the two page spreads in half. I shall count half of a two page spread as one page as shown:

For smaller newspapers like The New Paper and Today, remove the staples and use as-is.

Fold page in half. Fold it in half again.
Unfold once and fold sides to meet the middle crease. Fold in half.
This is the pre-twisted newspaper. Prepare and set aside a suitable amount for project. 

Optional: Glueing strips together with starch glue
For projects needing extra strength, starch glue can be used to glue the newspaper strips prior or during twisting. Starch glue is safe, non-toxic and provides a very strong bond. Objects glued using starch glue can be recycled. If glueing strips prior to twisting, glue at most 5 strips together. 

Make a paste with 1 part corn/tapioca starch with 4 parts water. Stir constantly over low heat until paste starts to thicken. Remove from heat and keep stirring. Stir in a few splashes of vinegar which serves as a preservative. Leave aside to cool before putting in an airtight container. 


Twisting newspaper

No special or expensive tool is required. I used an Ikea wall hook but anything strong, sturdy and un-moveable works. I used masking tape to tape one end of the newspaper strip to the hook. 

From the taped end, twist the strip in a clockwise direction. Twist at an angle and work your way down the strip. Do not let go or the strip will untwist itself. Do not put too much twist into the strip either, or the newspaper yarn will end up too hard and inflexible. About an inch or so before reaching the end of the strip, open strip and insert another strip (optional - glue strips together, wait a while for it to dry). Close strips together and twist as per normal. The area where the two strips overlap will be slightly thicker. If the length of yarn gets too long, wind the excess onto the hook. It is normal for the newspaper yarn to want to twist on itself. 

Once the wound-on yarn gets too big and starts falling off the hook, remove everything from the hook and wind the yarn into a ball.

A small video demonstration of how I twist my newspaper yarns. There is no right or wrong way to twist newspaper, you may develop your own special technique after a while.

DIY knitting looms

The parts of a knitting loom are pretty basic - a round or rectangular frame with pegs spaced evenly around its circumference. 

Here I will share how I made mine.


Materials needed:

Metal table legs

1. 1 cm thick plywood board, 70cm x 70 cm. Cut a hole 50cm in diameter in the center. 
2. Metal foldable table legs, can be taken off old tables
3. Scrap lengths of wood (if needed)
4. Iron nails (10cm long, 1 cm diameter)
5. Printer, 12 sheets A4 paper (save trees - use paper that has been used on one side)
6. Loom template pdf

Iron nails

Steps:

1. Download and print loom template on A4 paper.

2.Arrange template as shown and tape all pieces together.

3. Cut away excess - border square and inner circle as shown.

4. Tape template to plywood board. Using template as a guide, position and nail iron nails into board. 

5. If the plywood board is bigger than the table legs, nail scrap wood to the table leg table support as extenders. 

6. Nail plywood board to scrap wood extenders (or to the table legs if board fits). Loom is complete.

7. Optional: I am using two nails as one peg, so I marked out each pair using paint markers on the nails and plywood board. I also reinforced the nails to the board with epoxy putty. 

For a loom using pvc pipes, go to casual profanity's flickr album.

Inspiration: Newspaper yarn artists

Newspaper is a readily available material that most households have. Usually discarded or recycled, newspaper can also be transformed into wonderful pieces of art or practical objects. 

Ivano Vitali is arguably one of the most popular newspaper yarn artist. He has been creating sculptures, furniture and clothes using newspaper since 1996. He made his own large knitting needles and crochet hooks to complete his larger-than-life works. 

Ivano Vitali knitting with his huge knitting needles

Ivano Vitali, "Rosa Bomb-on", 2006

Ivano Vitali - installazione con sedie e sgabelli "impagliati" con i giornali - 2006/2010
(installation with chairs bottomed with newspaper)

Other newspaper yarn art/objects:

Xue Tao, Entwine, Newspaper, Iron Wire, Steel, 2007

Studio Greetje Van Tiem

What is a knitting loom?

If you look closely at any knitted items (t-shirts, sweaters, etc) you will find that the stitches are actually little v-shapes. In knitting, you are essentially making loops into loops.  

Image: Wikipedia

A knitting loom is a tool used for knitting. It is a great alternative to using needles ("sticks") as it is easy to learn and causes less strain on the hands. 

Knitting looms come in rectangular or circular shapes, but all will have pegs equally spaced around the circumference. 

(Left) Circular knitting loom with 24 pegs
(Right) Picking tool

Yarn is wound round each peg and a picking tool is used to lift the yarn loops over the previous loop. 

With the knitting loom a circular tube or a flat piece can be knitted.

Many stitches that can be done with needles can be done with the knitting loom.

With newspaper yarn, using a knitting loom to knit is beneficial for these reasons:

1. Knitting looms are easier to learn and produces consistent results even for beginners. 

2. Newspaper yarns might be thick and heavy. If knitting needles are used, they might be thick and troublesome to manipulate, on top of the weight of the newspaper yarn. 

The limitations of knitting looms are:

1. They are not as portable as needles. 

2. The pegs are fixed, so if you want the stitches to be closer for a denser fabric, another loom with more pegs/closer spacing between each peg has to be used OR use a thicker yarn.

3. Not all stitches that can be done with needles can be done on the loom

4. Knitting is limited by the number of pegs available, no more stitches can be added to increase the size of the knitting, unlike needles. 

Even with these limitations, the ease of use and learning has made loom knitting popular in recent years; with the increasing number of books, online tutorials, forums and groups as proof.