Let's Craft Something!

My first question after reading the title would be "What on earth is plarn?"  To be honest, I had no idea what plarn was a few weeks ago.  I was looking up some stuff on embroidery when I saw something about fusing plastic bags together.  I thought that sounded pretty neat, and then I saw that you could somehow make plastic bag yarn, or plarn, to knit and crochet with.

Yarn out of something that I already have a ton of?  Why not give it a try?  I mean, if I mess up, it's not like I spent money on supplies.

I was pretty skeptical, to be honest.  I mean, they're plastic bags.  They rip easily when you put too much weight in them, so how could they be that great for knitting or crocheting?  As skeptical as I was, I figured I would try it.  A lot of people had been doing it already, so there had to be some reason behind it...


I found a super simple tutorial on how to make plarn on a blog called Gooseflesh.  The only downside is that it takes a little while to make because you want to be careful not to rip the bags.  Her measurements are all in centimeters, but it works out to where approximately 2.5cm is an inch.



If you just want the gist of how she makes plarn, here's the quick textual version.  Basically, what she does is fold the bags in half (hotdog style), and again, and again, until her strip is about an inch wide.  Then she cuts off the bags at the seams at the bottom and the handle.  From there, she cuts the bags into 2cm sections.  After you open up the sections of bags, you knot them together and ta-da, double stranded plastic yarn, or plarn.

When I cut my sections of bags, I usually go with an inch width just because it is easier for me.  Like this, I can get 12 sections of bags from one bag.  This ends up making about a 216 inch section of plarn (with each section being about 18 inches).

Another great thing about plarn is when you reach the end of your plarn string, just add more to it.  I've done this probably three times while working on my bag so far.


I only have the base of my bag done right now, but I have already used about 9 bags already.  (I'm estimating because I still have some plarn on my homemade spool of a toilet paper roll.)  I'm only using Walmart bags right now, mostly because that's what our supply is pretty full of, but also because I like the white color with hints of blue that it puts off.


Ultimately, I'm hoping to get some yellow Dollar General bags to make flowers with also for the finished product.  I feel like it would compliment the colors well and really make it look less like recycled bags.


One thing I have learned, though is to be very careful with your knots.  They can tear the plarn if you try to force them through.  This is why it's important for you to get the knots as small as possible when making your plarn.  If you leave bigger knots and get into some tighter stitches, you could end up with the same problem that I did.  Learn from my mistakes!


Have you worked with plarn before?  What are your thoughts on it?  Would you ever consider using it?  Fused plastic bags before?  What do you do with your plastic bags?  Leave a comment and let's get upcycling!