How to make Plarn

How to make Plarn

What is plarn you may ask?

It’s short for plastic yarn. How cool! It’s a unique way to recycle your plastic shopping bags. Yes, that’s right ladies, go round up all your plastic bags shoved in your pantry to make your next crochet or knit project.

It’s super simple to whip up a batch of plarn. Read on to see how quick and easy it is make some plarn now.

You can see my YouTube video tutorial towards the end on how to make plarn.

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What do you need to make plarn?

All you need to make plarn is plastic bags and a pair of sissors and you got it!

So, here you see I have a grey plastic shopping bag. For this ball of plarn I waited till I went on a few shopping trips to have a good amount of bags. I wanted to make a grey yoga mat.

 

Gather your bags and your sissors…

I like these scissors for my sewing projects.

And you’ll end up with a pretty impressive ball of plarn.

Note: The plarn in this tutorial is actually a double piece of plarn. Because you are using loops made from the plastic bags you end up with two strands to work with instead of a single strand. I actually like it when using it to make a recycled project. I think it makes it sturdier.

 

Let me show you how to make it

First, take the plastic bag and start to flatten it out. Make sure that you get the corners straight by sticking your fingers in the end and pulling them taught. Making the bag flat and squared up.

 

Then press down the whole bag, top and bottom to make sure its complexly flat. This way when you start to cut the bags all your loops will end up being uniform in size.

 

Fold

After the plastic bag is completely flat you can start to fold it. Fold the bag in half.

 

Then, fold the plastic bag in half again. Keep pressing it down to keep it flat. Sometimes air gets in the bag. This step is great if you have your kids or spouse around, you can have them help you get them all ready to be on the next step which is cutting. It just helps the process go faster and its a great way to spend some family time together.

 

Cut

Grab your scissors and cut the ends off the bottom of the bag.

 

Then, turn the bag around and cut the top off where the handles are. You don’t need these to make the plarn.

 

You’ll end up with just the middle of the plastic bag left.

 

Now it’s time to cut to make the loops for the plarn. Cut the entire bag into one inch strips.

 

You will have a pile that looks like this. When I’m making a lot of plarn I will take another plastic bag and keep all my one inch pieces in it until i’m ready to loop them together.

 

Prepare the loops

Unravel the one inch strips to reveal a plastic loop. Take two plastic loops to begin the plarn.

 

Pick them up, one in each hand.

 

Start to join the loops

Start to join the loops together.  Put one loop through the other loop.

 

Take the loop that is on top and put one end of the loop through the other end of the loop.

 

This joins them together in a knot.

 

Pull the two loops gently until the knot forms and they are securely joined.

 

You will end up with the two loops joined and this will be the start of the double ply of plarn.

 

Make sure when you start to join more loops together that you have even tension on all the loops. Other wise when you crochet or knit with it, it can get bunched up because the strands are uneven.

 

Keep adding loops together. Here you see I have added a few more and starting to get some length to the plarn.

 

Roll it up to store for a project

As you go, roll it up. This will keep it from getting tangled and you can store it better until you need it.

That’s it!

Just a reminder: When you go to use it for crocheting or knitting make sure you keep the double strands together as you go.

 

Some projects I made with plarn

These few projects that I made I did not have a pattern for them. I free hand crocheted them.

I made this little bag with handles. This was done with single crochet.

 

And I made this little purse with handles too. This was done with single crochet too.

 

For the plarn that I made for this tutorial I used it to make a yoga mat with it. The mat I decided to use a double crochet to add length quickly to it.

What will you make with your plarn? I’m thinking that I will try to make a market bag next.

 

For visual learners I made a YouTube video tutorial to better explain and show how to make plarn.

Watch my YouTube tutorial here:

 

 

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Read some of my other blog posts here:

Homemade Shrinky-dinks

How to make a coffee cozy

How to make fabric letters

Baby’s First Year Clothing Keepsake Quilt

DIY Boxwood Wreath

 

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