Plarn! Lots of Plarn!

I love plarn... plarn, plarn, plarn, we love plarn, Fun, fun, fun.

So I ran into a bag of plastic bags in my cabinet today... and noticed that there were a whole heck of a lot of them. I looked up some facts, and it turns out that Americans use 380 billion plastic bags a year. Given that there are 301,139,947 people living in the U.S. (as of July 2007), that means every man, woman and child uses just over 126 bags per person per year.... Well I don't give bags to babies, so this figure is probably much higher. Factor in how many people use reusable bags, how many of us shop at Costco or places that do not use bags, and that number gets a little scarier.

So what do we do with all the bags, Most are sent to landfills never to be heard from again. Only 1-2 percent of plastic bags are recycled. Now I admit to using bags as liners in my trash cans, using them to scoop kitty litter, throwing away the ones that get torn or ripped during use. Plastic bags are part of daily life. At some grocery stores unless you ask for paper, your purchases are plopped unceremoniously into a plastic bag.

Wow, I really do sound like I am on a high horse don't I? Heh. Don't worry, just some facts and figures before I get down to business. I'm done with the boring, lets get to the fun. So what did I decide to do. I decided to get all those bags from all those cabinets and do something with them! I made a huge pile of plastic loops and just started knotting them together! WOOO! Plarn!

Plastic Yarn, one of the things to come out of the "eco-crafting" trend, is used in knitting or crocheting. I haven't decided what to do with mine yet, or finished using the bags I have "in stock". I have just had a realization though, many of the crafters go out to the grocery stores where plastic bags are recycled and ask to take the bags...dropping the number of recycled bags again! Damn! I am only asking people who don't already recycle to save bags.... Man that freaks me out now! Back off the high horse.

So here are the before, after and during photos of my first expedition into plarn! Once I get the balls knitted into something I will post again! WOOO!