who'da'thunk

Plastic bags make wonderful crochet rugs for your front porch or mud room, too! All you do is cut off the handles and bottom seams, cut them into 2" strips (or continuous cuts), and use the strips for crochet with just about any rug pattern. They can be hosed off and shaken "dry". You can do color patterns with bags of different colors, or just stick with one color and let the printing on them show up as occasional bits of scattered color. Leisure Arts even has a set of patterns called "Bag Rugs" or something similar.

I have friends who crochet the plastic bags into beach bags to put your wet things in, and also maybe the kiddie toys. Barbara om FL

When I was a very little girl, dry cleaners put clean clothes inside clear blue or pink plastic bags. Somebody really smart figured out how to use those plastic bags to make big, sort of fluffy pompoms. Somebody else then figured out how to use the pompoms and more bags and a clothes hanger to make a cute poodle dog. They put button eyes on. My mom made me one once. Every little kid in town had one of those plastic bag poodle dogs for a while.There's something about the idea of ironing plastic grocery bags together to make something new that reminds me of those dogs.

Sunny (now checking Google to see if anybody ever posted a photo of one of those 1960s poodle dogs)

I don't remember the poodles but.... My mom had a Christmas wreath made by tying pieces of those dry cleaner bags around a wire hanger bent into a circle. I think those were the blue bags. I think one of my sisters had made it. My mom used it for years, until my daughter was a teenager and said "Can't we make Grandma a different wreath so she doesn't have to use that old plastic bag one?" :)

Julia > When I was a very little girl, dry cleaners put clean clothes inside

A friend of mine was trying to knit with strips of plastic bags but was having a hard time. The plastic 'wool' was not sliding easily on her metal knitting needles so she gave up. Has anyone else tried knitting with cutup plastic bags?

Allis> Plastic bags make wonderful crochet rugs for your front porch or mud

Yep, and I found the same thing. I found it easier with plastic needles. And I found some kinds of bag knit easier than others. There's a soft kind of bag that has an almost "greasy" feel to it and is quiet (not rustly). That was the hardest to knit with. But another common type is stiffer and very loud and rustly. It's much easier to knit with. Tell your friend to keep at it.

Melanie

allis> A friend of mine was trying to knit with strips of plastic bags but was

No, but they might slide more easily on bamboo needles. Roberta in D

"allisonh" schrieb im Newsbeitrag news:47ea93c2$0$1529$ snipped-for-privacy@news.newshosting.com...

Better avoid the bio-degradable ones. The first time I saw one degrading I thought the mice had been at it - lots of tiny tiny bits of plastic like confetti!

Sally at the Seaside ~~~~~~~~~~ (uk)

Thanks from me and from Annie. I think she's going to try again with other bags.

Allis> Yep, and I found the same thing. I found it easier with plastic needles.

Thanks for the idea. I am going to lend her my bamboo needles.

Allis> No, but they might slide more easily on bamboo needles.

LOL around here most of the plastic bags do degrade.... if exposed to sun/heat. And it doesn't take too long either.

Pati, > Better avoid the bio-degradable ones. The first time I saw one degrading