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If you are like me, you have a collection of plastic bags from all of your shopping trips somewhere in your home. I reuse them in a variety of ways: cat litter, bathroom trash bins, dirty diapers, etc. Yet, I still have tons of them. Recently, my mom introduced me to plarning, and now I have another use for plastic bags as well as a new way to use my crochet skills. I absolutely love crocheting because it’s easy to do while sitting on the couch watching TV or chatting with my baby while he is in his bouncer!
What is plarning? Well, it’s using plastic bags as yarn to crochet a project of your choosing.
How to make plarn:
1. Procure plastic grocery bags. A pots and pans scrubber (diameter ~4 inches) takes 5-6 bags.
2. Flatten/smooth the bags so that the side walls are folded in and stack them up. I keep my stacks to about 3 so that I can cut them easily.
3. Cut off the bottom and the handles. You want two straight cuts.
4. Cut 1-1 ½ inch rows. Wider is better so that the plastic doesn’t stretch too thin and rip when you start working with it.
5. Separate the “rings” that you just cut.
6. Connect the rings using slip-knots. Be careful not to pull too hard or risk ripping the plastic.
7. If you do rip the plastic, simply tie a knot in the ring (it’s a plastic bag craft after all; it doesn’t need to be perfect) or remove that ring.
8. To add more when you run out, just slip-knot on more rings!
9. Roll it up like a ball of yarn and find a I,J,K crochet hook (as long as it fits the plarn, it will work)
10. Head over to this post for some basic projects you can make with plarn!
Have you tried plarning? What have you made?
This is interesting–never heard of it before!
This is really cool! I saw something where someone had made a sleeping mat this way
That would be cool! You would need a ton of bags!
This is so interesting and cool! I’m always looking for ways to recycle or re-purpose items around the house. This is a great way to use up those old grocery bags. Thanks for sharing!
What a great idea, we have so many plastic bags in our house!