I quite like being odd, even eccentric and a little bit quirky...
I'll happily spend hours scouring the local op shops for the perfect jumper. Take it home and air it for a couple of days in the sunshine. Undo the seams, unravel the jumper, skein it, wash it... then hang it out to dry. Ply it, then wash and dry it again to set the twist. Then roll it into a neat little ball and add it to my collection of reclaimed yarns. One day I might even knit it into a jumper again!
It's a long and fiddly process. Not for the faint-hearted. But intensely satisfying, and therapeutic. Way more enjoyable than buying ready-balled yarn from the store.
But have I crossed the line?
For months I have been collecting plastic bags and cutting them into strips. Supermarket bags, bread bags, fruit and vegetable bags. Collecting and cutting. Collecting and cutting. Then I spun two strands together, and plied those with another two strands I had spun together. I ended up with two balls of plastic yarn. Much less than I would have anticipated. A little disappointing, but an interesting experiment all the same.
Now what will I do with this plastic yarn... or 'plarn' as those in the know would call it?
Why, I will crochet it into a plastic bag of course!
Insane? possibly
6 comments:
I love your insanity! You go girl!
I have been dying to do something with plastic bags for a while now. I don't think I would be able to make anything as fancy as your plarn but I really want to have a go!
And by the way - it's not insane. The amount of plastic bags that are produced in the world - now that's insane!
Yes! I love it! I've thought about cutting bags into strips, tying them together, then knitting my own grocery bags. I never dreamed these could be spun into "plarn" (and I love the name). If only I knew how to spin . . .
You crack me up! I too ponder my sanity from time to time. I've been thinking about plying plastic strips with some size 5 crochet cotton. lol
I just discovered your blog via Whipup (yay networking!) and can find the way to subscribe to the comments but how do I subscribe to the blog - do you have RSS? I am enjoying it and it is so much easier to have each new post appear on my iGoogle homepage rather than have to bookmark and then remember to look.
I have been crocheting with plastic bags for a while now, because I could not bear to see the waste. The cool thing is that the brownish shaded bags fool people into thinking they are made out of raffia. My method is to smooth bags out, acordian pleat across width, and cut into .5 inch loops. I "loop" the loops together and roll into a ball. The thing to watch for is the type of plastic used for the bags. Some plastics are more clingy and are much harder to work with as they do not slide along the hook. You can make many sturdy, washable and reusable items this way, including grocery bags!
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