03/02/2012 - Handle for the Plarn Bag

Finally done with this little bag! Zoe was getting impatient to have it, but I had to make her wait until I got a picture of it.

Reclaimed Material: plarn
Other/New Material: none
Tools: scissors, knitting needles

How I did it: I knit the handle about 8" long and stitched it onto the bag.


What I would do differently: I really like to just sit and knit, but I don't know if I really care about making something with plarn again now that I have gotten it out of my system. Who knows though, I still have nine and half months of upcycled projects to do!

02/28/2012 - Plarn Bag - Part II

I took a break from my schoolwork to finish up the body of the plarn bag. It is surprisingly soft and squishy when knitted.

Reclaimed Material: plarn
Other/New Material: none
Tools: knitting needles

How I did it: Knitting, knitting and a little more knitting. I folded the knitted piece in half and used the cast on knit to hold the sides together.

What I would do differently: Finish?

02/25/2012 - Small Plarn Bag

I started this project in our car trip back to Chicago from D.C., but ran out of daylight to complete this bag, so this is Part I of the plarn bag saga.

Reclaimed Material: plarn
Other/New Material: none
Tools: chopsticks

How I did it: Since this was my first plarn knitting project I didn't want to make anything too big, so I decided on a small bag for Zoe. I started a regular knit with the plarn. I got about halfway done with the body of the bag before I lost my light. I was kind of relieved because we were pretty pooped from our trip.

What I would do differently: Like with the Mylar project, using real knitting needles.

02/23/2012 - PLARN!

Plastic + Yarn = Plarn. This plastic yarn was easier to make than I thought. There are lots of great things that knitters are making with this. I even heard of a Girl Scout group a few years ago collecting plastic grocery bags to turn into Plarn as part of a fundraiser...pretty cool.

Reclaimed Material: plastic grocery bags
Other/New Material: none
Tools: scissors 

How I did it: I thought that knitters made the plarn by cutting one long strip from each bag and tying them together as they went along, but this seemed so cumbersome, not to mention hard to get an even cut. I found these simple instructions: plarn making. I followed the instructions and rolled the plarn into a ball.

What I would do differently: I guess I could use newspaper bags for this too, but this seems like a good use of plastic grocery bags.

02/22/2012 - Mylar Balloon Camera Sleeve

Crafting on a road trip is not the easiest thing to do, well at least to do well. I had to get creative on this one. I found a Mylar balloon in the stockpile of goodies my sister had for me and combined it with a pair of disposable chopsticks (how is that for ingenuity?) from my mom to work on this project.

Reclaimed Material: Mylar balloon, potato chip bag
Other/New Material: none
Tools: scissors, wooden chopsticks

How I did it: Starting at the top of the balloon I cut into one side of the balloon and began cutting a horizontal strip then continued cutting it like an apple core to use as my "yarn". Using the chopsticks as my needles, I started knitting the balloon to make a sleeve for my sister's camera. The seams of the Mylar came apart in a couple places so I had to tie the pieces together. Unfortunately, I ran out of the Mylar before I was able to finish. Julie suggested using a chip bag to finish so I started the same process as with the Mylar and knitted the chip bag onto the Mylar. I used the potato chip "yarn" too stitch the piece into a sleeve.

What I would do differently: I have a habit of knitting really tightly, so chopsticks didn't really help. Using real knitting needles would be easier next time. (The picture was taken before the chip bag was added.)