Plarn. You may be asking yourself, what is that? Well, it's plastic bags that can be used in crochet and knitting projects. Crazy right? I learned about this from a women's group meeting we had earlier this year at my church. One of the ladies was telling us about a project that she is a part of with another group. They make mats for the homeless using plastic bags. I was very intrigued. I loved the idea of recycling plastic bags. I rarely get any plastic bags myself as I make and use my own reusable tote bags when I go shopping. So, I put the word out to my family and friends to save their bags and I would take them.
Now, our women's group will be collecting bags over the summer and learn to make this mats in the fall. Well, being patient was never something I mastered, so I looked on youtube and pinterest for directions on making these mats. It's quite simple. First you lay the bags out flat, cut off the handles and the bottom. From there cut the bag in half, then from each half, cut in half again. That's it. All you need to do then is knot loops together. You can roll it into a ball if you want or just throw all your knotted loops into a tote. Don't worry about tangles. Unlike regular yarn, these will not tangle. You will need a P or a Q crochet hook. I used a Q for my chain, then went to the P. Chain a row until it measures about 2 1/2 feet and then add 2 more chains. Single crochet in 2nd chain from hook and in each chain across. Ch 1, single crochet across. Repeat until the length measures about 72 inches (6 feet). That's it!
We will add a blanket and socks before rolling up the mat. Either a strap can be made to hold it together or sometimes a belt is used to keep it rolled up. The mat is waterproof so it can be laid on the ground, then the blanket on top so they can stay dry when laying down.
The place where her group takes the mat, somewhere in Philly I believe, keeps the mats and if someone needs a new one due to wear, they must return the old one. This helps keeps them out of rivers and other places.
I hope you found this interesting!
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| Bag of bags, we will need a couple of hundred to make 1 mat |
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| Cut loops |
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| Loops knotted together |
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| Mat in progress |
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