Story Sabrina Black

Photos Jessica Runyan-Gless

It started as a joke. My younger sister was about to graduate from high school. Teasing, I told her I was going to crochet curtains out of plastic for her first apartment. I would have done it, too, if I'd had the time. Instead, I opted for a smaller project, which was also intended to be a joke: a purse crocheted out of plarn, or plastic yarn. The idea came from a do-it-yourself (DIY) project for my digital arts class. The idea wasn’t mine. While I poked around the craft store, smelling oils and choosing dye and wax to make candles, my friend Tiffany surfed the Web to find a DIY project that wouldn’t cost her a dime. She found a quick and simple way to make plarn; all she needed were plastic shopping bags.

Materials: 

• Plastic grocery or department store bags
• Scissors 

Instructions:

1. To begin, gather twenty or more plastic bags.

2. Lay one bag flat on a solid surface with its sides tucked in. Smooth out as many bumps and creases as you can.

3. Next, fold the bag in half vertically and press the air out of it.

4. Continue making vertical folds until you have a folded strip about one inch wide.

5. Cut both ends to remove the handles at the top and the seal at the bottom.

6. Continue to cut the folded plastic into strips, about a half-inch wide.

7. Once these pieces are cut, unfold them — they should open into loops of plastic. It’s OK if the edges are crooked or uneven.

8. Link all of your plastic loops together using Lark’s Head knots to create a long piece of string. Your new long piece of string is your plarn.

9. Once you have your plarn, you can crochet or knit any project you’d like — there are tons of free patterns online.