Playing with Plarn

You're probably scratching your head right about now, thinking, "What on earth is plarn?" Plarn is plastic yarn, or yarn-like strands made from plastic bags.

I originally came to plarn as a way to deal with the mountain of plastic grocery bags that had accumulated in our pantry area. I literally stuffed my car with bags to take to the local SHARE for them to use in bagging food. Picture a Kia Rio Cinco packed to the gills with me, two kids and plastic bags. Even after that I still had quite a few left. (This is back in my pre-cloth grocery bag days.)

Back to the plarn. You can make plarn two different ways. Some people have figured out how to cut one continuous strand from a plastic bag. I am not one of them. I prefer the second method, which involves cutting loops from the bag, then looping them together. Either method starts with smoothing the bags out and flattening them. Then cut off the bottom seam and the handles. This is where the methods differ. Like I said, I haven't figured out the continuous strand method.

This is what I do: I fold the bag into fourths the long way (fold in half the long way, then fold in half the long way again). This gives me a nice smallish thing. I then cut the long folded bag into little strips, an inch or less in width, yielding a plethora of little loops. The thickness of the plarn is directly related to how wide you cut your strips, and will also affect what size hook you use. Keep in mind, too, that this will yield a double-thickness of plarn.

When I've cut up a pile of bags and have a pile of little loops, I tie them together. If you ever tied rubber bands together as a kid by looping one through another, then back on itself, you have the concept. Do be careful; while the finished items are surprisingly durable, the strands themselves can be fragile. DON'T PULL TOO HARD or you will rip your loops. If you do, all is not lost. You can either tie the ends back together and continue on your merry way or toss that loop.

If my instructions aren't terribly clear--and I'm sure they're not--there is a wonderful tutorial at Marlo's Crochet Corner that even has pictures.

Coming up: what do you do with the leftovers and what do you make with plarn?