A crafting friend recently reminded me of the value of plarn. Plarn is yarn made from plastic (PLastic-yARN). Typically it is used in recycling efforts by giving new life to used shopping bags. (And oh the things people make, just image searching plarn is its own rabbit hole.) The attraction of cutting up bags is that if you cut them from side to side you end up with loops, which are very easy to connect into longer pieces. So I set my grocery bags out to dry, then cut them into loops by folding them length-wise several times, squeezing out the air, and cutting about one inch sections. (I found the measurement of the end digit of my tallest finger is one inch. Convenient.)
I really enjoy nålbinding, and connecting short sections is the exact method needed for this technique. Rather than making a large length of plarn, I decided to attach as I go. But can I spin it too? Well of course. It actually works quite well to attach a loop, use the hook on my drop spindle on the other end of the loop, and spin just that section. (It is possible to put twist into the plarn with a pencil or fingers if you don’t have a spindle with a hook.) Putting twist into the strand makes it more durable and easier to work with when making stitches. The tighter the twist the harder the plarn feels; I prefer to twist until the diameter is about the same as the knot.
I did a short video to show this technique. (I used a new method for closed captions, so check that out too.) This post is getting rather long, so I’ll talk about what I’m doing with the plarn tomorrow.
