How to Make Plarn

You may be wondering, “What the heck even is plarn??” or “What would I use this for?” Plarn is precisely what it sounds like:

Plastic + Yarn = Plarn 🙂

Plarn is a great way to reduce your plastic waste AND use up all of those old grocery bags in your pantry.

How to Make Plarn

Notes

Each 1 bag will give you about 7 yards of plarn. Most patterns will let you know how much yarn you will need to complete the project. So for example, if a pattern for a coaster says that you need 35 yards of yarn, that would mean that you need to use 5 plastic bags to be able to follow that pattern.

What You Will Need

• Plastic Grocery Bags

• Scissors or a Cutting mat and rotary cutter

Instructions

Step One

Make sure that your plastic bags are clean and dry. You can use any type of plastic bag that you have, for this tutorial I am using Walmart bags.

Step Two

Take one of your plastic bags and flatten it out as best you can. Here is what it should look like.

Step Three

Cut the bottom seam off the bag. You don’t need to cut off too much, just the bottom 1/4″.

Step Four

Cut 3/4″ to 1″ wide strips across the bag. You can also fold the bag in half to make this process even easier. I used scissors, but if you have a rotary cutter, that will also work. I was able to cut 14 total strips across each bag.

Step Five

Next, we will be joining all of our plastic strips. I used an interlocking loop knot (also called a strop bend knot). First, you will lay two loops over each other.

Step Six

Now, from the top, pull the left loop to the right. From the bottom, pull the right loop to the left.

Here is a diagram that should help 🙂

Now, pull the ends to tighten the knot, but not so tight that you’re stretching the plastic.

Step Seven

All you have to do now is wind it up into a giant plarn ball!