Monday, July 12, 2021

Curiosity Sated

A few years ago, I saw a thing about cutting up plastic bags to make "yarn" and then make a bag out of that. I stored that idea away. 

Recently, I cleaned out my car, and I had a bunch of shopping bags that I had collected. (Back in March and April of 2020, stores were all like, "don't bring outside bags in", so I didn't. Once that panic wore off, I went back to reusing bags.) I thought, why not try the bag thing?

Cutting the bags into strips turned out to be easy. Crocheting with those strips was a bit awkward, but doable. 

I decided to do the windmill pattern. And that's where I made my mistake.

The last time I tried it, the bag came out way too huge. This time? I went in the complete opposite direction. 

This would make a nice vase of some sort. It would probably hold a wine bottle nicely. (Alas, I don't drink, so...) 

It may be small, but it used up all the bags I had on hand, so it was basically as big as I could make it with the materials I have on hand.

Ah well. It may be a fail, but at least I learned lots of things from the attempt. I wonder if I can recycle this now.

20 comments:

  1. Very clever! Bet woven plastic is surprisingly strong.

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    1. I don't know. The crocheted plastic was still stretchy.

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  2. Really interesting, I never would have thought of doing something like that!

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  3. I've actually thought about trying that with bags, too, but ultimately didn't feel like cutting them up to make the yarn.

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    1. It's not as hard as you'd imagine. I thought it would take me way longer than it ultimately did.

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  4. My mom has done something similar with pieces of of leftover quilting fabric. She ties the pieces together and then crochets the strips to make small rugs. They're very cute and colorful.

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    1. Rag rugs, right? Those are great. I think this technique works way better with fabric than with plastic.

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  5. Well, it came out neat looking. I suppose some day you might need to carry a bottle of wine somewhere...

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  6. I would have never thought of using plastic bags to make yarn. Glad you used up all those plastic bags to try it.

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  7. I've heard of using these bags to crochet items, but never tried it. Meanwhile, here in New York State, those bags were banned as of March 1, 2020 - just in time for the pandemic. The state didn't enforce the law for a time, but finally started to. Many of us miss those bags for certain uses. One person's surplus is another person's treasure, apparently.

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  8. These are awsome.
    Coffee is on and stay safe

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  9. There is a place not far from my home where the young woman braids the strips of plastic bags and makes mattes for the homeless with them.

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    1. I think that's a much better use of it than what I attempted.

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  10. Hi Liz - well done for trying ... and excellent you had another try. Somehow we need to eliminate plastic from our lives, and clear the plastic that's littering our countries and our seas ... all the best - Hilary

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  11. Hey, at least you gave this a try but I do wonder about the strength it would have.

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    1. I used the denser plastic bags. It was pretty sturdy.

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  12. Popping a pot plant inside (still in its pot of course) would work, wouldn't it? It's a bit hard to gauge size, but I think an indoor plant would look nice.

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