Monday, June 28, 2010

Things I learned from Plarn

Last week I took a class all about knitting with Plarn. You do know what Plarn is, right? Plastic Yarn made from recycled plastic grocery bags.

Lesson #1: Plan on a long evening at home. Making plarn involves cutting up lots of plastic bags and then connecting them.  Me? I was watching back episodes of Stargate SG-U: 1.0.


Lesson #2: Plarn rustles. No knitting with plarn in church! It starts out fairly wide but as it passes through your hands, it stretches and becomes much thinner. But it also makes a lot of noise . . .


Lesson #3: Plarn is easy to make mistakes with. The stitches blend together and it is very easy to lose track! I've been frogging quite a bit for using recycled plastic bags.


Lesson #4: Plarn can be very pretty! Eventually I will have an Ilene Bag - a very nice, stretchy shopping bag. Until then, though, I just have plarn.


And just in case you wanted to see a work in progress - check out Kate E. Austen's "How to make Plarn" video tutorial . . . 


(Oh, and that Saturday Seven? Pretty sure it was more than seven but I took two shopping bags full of dishes, trays, mugs and jackets over to a rummage sale. It was going to rain so I just skipped the photograph and dropped it off. Use your imagination!)


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I recently made my first plarn creation too, though I crocheted with it. Can't imagine knitting with it; seems like it'd be too slippery. But you seem to be doing alright with it. I made a plarn lunch tote. http://bit.ly/9ngovy. Happy knitting!

WeBeYarnin said...

I stumbled across your blog and it is very cool! Just thought you should know =) And I really think I might give this "plarn" a try. got TONS of plastic bags...lol