As friends of Earth Links may know, we get excited about new ways to educate people all over the world about recycling, especially when it comes to plastic bags. Recently, we’ve been researching plastic bag weaving in preparation for a couple of projects in Nicaragua and Mexico, and we found a wealth of tutorials, both written and in video format, for turning plastic bags into yarn (amusingly known as “plarn”) and thence crocheting, knitting, or weaving it into all kinds of useful things. Let us know in a comment if you have any further ideas, especially ideas for salable items.
Plarn! As the website DIY Life says, how fun is “plarn” to say? Very fun!
One of the best tutorials out there is yarn maven Jana Trent’s extensive illustrated how-to guide, available here. Also useful are the links that CraftingA Green World has gathered on how to weave plarn (that is, to create things with plarn without knowing knitting or crocheting).
Instructables also has this tutorial for a yarn and plastic mix, though it could be adapted to use only plastic.
If you’re looking for inspiration for what to make, check out the UK crafting website Craft, which has oodles of links to various projects all over the web, especially for knitting and crocheting. There are over 700 plarn items for sale on the boutique site Etsy, which could also give you ideas for projects.