Yarn Along

Visit Ginny to see what everyone else is knitting/crocheting, and reading!

This is my project this week:  a sleeping mat for a homeless person.  It's crocheted from that  oh-so-scrunchable yarn:  plastic bags!

I'd seen little hints around the internets that folks were crocheting with plastic bags to make shopping bags (shopping bags out of shopping bags?  Seems silly.) or purses, so when I saw a woman working on such a project at a track meet, I had to ask her about it.  Turns out she was making one of these.  They're supposed to be so much better for sleeping on than cardboard.  It dries if it gets wet, and it really is kind of spongy and squishy.  I read about one homeless man who says it's much more comfortable to sleep on as it cushions his joints nicely.

This video is the best one I've seen for instructions.  It's simply a single crochet stitch, and the mat is supposed to be 3 feet wide by 6 ft. long.  I've heard that it takes 500-700 bags to make one, but then yesterday I saw something that said 120.  That's a big difference!  It can take a long time to crochet and cut the bags to make the plarn, but Meg and I are getting into a rhythm, working together.  

I'm using a size M crochet hook; I think she says N in the video.  I definitely wouldn't go smaller than that!  I tried and I was completely miserable.

It's a long, tedious project, but I enjoy it because I keep thinking about how it will make one person a little more comfortable.  I also think it's a great way to adapt the prayer shawl ministry that so many churches have.  I plan to be praying for the person who receives this mat while I make it, and, considering how long that may take, that will be a lot of prayers!

Our American Heritage Girls troop will be working on these at our July activity.  We'll get lots of plarn made if we have a small army of girls cutting bags and knotting them together!