Over the past week, I spent some time in one of my favorite internet communities, Knitting Paradise, and learned something new. If you have never heard of Knitting Paradise or have never spent time there, it is a great way to get answers from more experienced knitters, share your latest finished project or just shoot the breeze with fellow knitters. It seems like I am always coming away with something useful, fun or interesting.
In this case, I learned about "plarn". Plarn is a portmanteau (or a blending of two words to make a new one) made of plastic and yarn. It is a great way to do what many plastic bags have printed directly on them: "Recycle, Reduce, Reuse"!
Making plarn is easy and there are a lot of good websites (see below) out there that show step by step how to make it, so I am not planning to reinvent the wheel here and shoot more plarn-making photos. But I wanted to share the project I am working on and a couple of lessons I have learned.
I decided that I wanted to try a shopping tote. (Not only is it useful, but I find it humorously redundant.) I chose to make the tote rather small as I wanted to try out the whole plarn thing without taking forever to complete something -- what a waste (humor alert) to throw out a bunch of good plarn if you don't finish the project. However, if I finish the tote, use it conscientiously, then I will soon deplete my never ending supply of shopping bags. . .
Plarn was easier for me to crochet than knit, I think it is because it does not give much and since I knit fairly tight, there was no give to slip the working needle into the plarn.
Making plarn is easy and monotonous. My preferred method quickly became: fold one bag, cut it up, and crochet it, go to the next bag, repeat.
Crocheting plarn is tiring on your hands. Again I will chalk this up to the lack of give/stretch. So it will be something that I pick up for an hour or so at a time when I am tired of working on a long term project like a sweater or quilt.
Since I do most of my shopping at one local grocery store, most all of my bags are white with red and green printing. You don't really see most of the red or green, but it shows up like speckles in the white, much like a tweed yarn.
I used a cut width of about 1 1/2 inches, but I certainly did not use a ruler, I just eyeballed it.
Happy knitting, um er, crocheting!
Good, step by step, how to make and use plarn websites:
http://www.etsy.com/blog/en/2010/how-tuesday-how-to-make-plarn-crochet-an-eco-friendly-tote-b/
http://craftingagreenworld.com/2008/06/19/yearn-worthy-yarn-plarn/
http://www.plasticbagcrafts.com/make-plarn/
http://diyfashion.about.com/od/diyfashion101/tp/Plarn.htm
http://www.crochetpatterncentral.com/directory/plarn_items.php
http://www.myrecycledbags.com/my-pattern-links/
http://debsgoinggreen.blogspot.com/2008/07/more-plarn-patterns.html
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