Plarn Plarn Plarn Everywhere

The idea of plarn bags is catching on with circles I'm in, mostly due to people seeing my bag of course.  I usually use it mostly for pool and beach activities so it's exposure has been limited to those venues. 

Over the past 3 months I've began training for my first 5K in hopes of potentially becoming some kind of a runner.  This is a completely new adventure for me and has been surprisingly easy to get to the point where I am today.  Most of my hang ups over the years have been to knee problems and then fear of screwing up the then surgically reconstructed knee.  But I digress...

I have a run date every Wednesday with a friend near our daycare.  On the rare occasion that my girlfriend can't make it, or I decide to do a run just before I pick up the children, I stop in school, change and leave my "running bag" (plarn bag of course!) in the principal's office while I run.  I can't tell you the number of comments I get on the bag when I'm there.  People are amazed that it's made out of grocery store bags and that I've made it.  So much so that I'm contemplating creating a grocery bag recycling box there to collect new bags. 

With all this new interest I've been working very hard on the two I'm already working on.  The base of the all target one just about done thanks to my recent shopping trips.  The other bag is probably 4 or 5 ins in height now, so not quite there yet in terms of being proportional to the base, but soon!  I can't wait to share the finish products with you!

Now if only my cousin lived closer I could get her to practice her photography on my products!  You should check out her 30 Photography Challenge that she's doing right now.

Work in Progress

I've been diligently working on 2 plarn projects of late.  The one I started a few months ago is still going strong.  It is a lot bigger than I had initially envisioned it, but that's ok, I'm sure my friend will enjoy a larger than planned plarn bag.  Now that I'm a few inches up the side of the bag, it is starting to take some serious shape.

As I bag started to get bigger, I was surprised at the softness of the bag feel.  As a result, I'm doing some experimenting with different bag material and plarn thicknesses.  Hence why I have two bags currently in the works.  The larger bag uses mostly my grocery store bags with an occasional other bag mixed in here and there.  For some reason my grocery store bags seem very soft when it comes to the type of plastic.  Yes, I said soft when referring to a plastic bag. 

I'm curious if by using different bags that are not as soft if the bag will be stiffer.  You can see from the larger, more complete bag that the overall look of the bag is more like canvas than a basket.  That's fine, I'm just trying to get a better feel of different textures with this medium.  There is a lot more experimenting here than say sewing a boppy cover. There I pretty much know what kind of fabric I want and why and then how to construct it.

The second bag I'm working on it going to be made only from Target bags.  It's already starting out much stiffer than the other bag.  I have a feeling it is the bag material, but I did also just switch the way I'm cutting my plarn in order to make it more uniform.  I'm curious if that will make any difference.  I suppose I will find out when I get to those strips on the larger bag.  Until then you will just have to enjoy my current stages.    

Thank you Snowquester

I'm so excited to announce that I finally finished the blanket for my son, that was supposed to be a Christmas present, then a birthday present, but really turned out to be a just because I love to you present. 

I was finally able to finish it because of the Snowquester "storm" that rolled through the area yesterday.  Now I understand that people west of the the DC area did get some significant snow fall.  Me however, NONE, ZILCH, NADA, NOTHING!!!!  I realize I am probably partially to blame.  In anticipation for potentially 6 - 9 inches of heavy snowfall, I dug through our hand me down pile to find a snow suit that fit and a paid of snow boots that way to big but can work in a pinch.  And I got this stuff out on Monday...Wednesday comes, yup, no snow, but it didn't stop the world from shutting down so mommy gets to stay home with the kiddos for the day.  Which meant I took full advantage and finished that blanket!  I hope you enjoy the pictures, though I took them on my phone so they aren't the best quality.

I haven't washed it yet, because how do you explain to a 3 year old that the blanket isn't done until it's washed when it looks useable right now.  I'm ok with that, it will cutiefity (yes that's my own word!) as he uses it.  I imagine it will be wash regularly as he came downstairs this morning blanket in hand dragging on the floor behind, in his Lightning McQueen PJs and snow boots (yes he found them and will wear nothing else now).  The blanket had to go to school with him and won't leave his side; a true Linus moment and I couldn't be more proud. 

Now that I've completed one, and I can't believe I'm saying this, but yes, I would completely do one again.  Now that I have a system down I can see myself doing it.  And yes, I would do one to sell as well, but after calculating my time and material cost it isn't a cheap blanket.  I did a brief comparison on Etsy and my price is well within the norm of what I found there.  So bring on the custom orders, and I promise it won't take me 5 months to complete yours!  But it is definitely not an overnight job. 

Up next will be my plarn bag for a friend and then maybe I'll start working on one for my younger son since I'm not exactly happy how his hand knit blanket turned out (it's too small for my liking.)

Quarantined

My youngest is sick, yet again.  This time he is "kicked" out of daycare until he gets better, stupid rules and regulations that they have to follow.  Since I've been home, I've been able to get some work done on the website, photo editing, and yes, even some sewing.  My chenille blanket is almost complete.  I have about 30 more rows to sew.  Then comes squaring the blanket up and adding some satin blanket binding. 

I took a few pictures this morning of my progress since I've been asked on several occasions how the blanket is progressing.

The first picture is of my general row stitching on the bottom of the blanket.  My stitching has gotten a lot better as I've progressed.  I think more so to the technique I used marker where I am supposed to sew and developed in the process.  My first few rows were not as straight as I would like them to be.  This project has been a large practice in keeping a steady hand if nothing else. 

The second picture is of some of the rows I've already cut.  Now that I'm on the home stretch, I'm starting to cut and sew as I go, so this is just a sample of that.  It already looks great and I haven't even washed it yet to let it get softer.

Finally, the last picture is of the top with the Disney Cars theme that my oldest son is really into right now.  I like that the stitched rows are subtle so the fabric can really shine. 

I'm so close to being done, I can taste it.  Now to get the dog off the blanket so I can continue working on it.