I first heard of plarn when I saw Gopherit’s bag last spring. Ever since then I wanted to make this bag in plarn, and I finally got around to doing it this summer. It’s perfect for a beach bag! It can get sandy and wet, no worries! Here’s a good video for how to make plarn: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dc7J6QhHCgY It is a little rough on the hands, and doesn’t slide along nicely, so it takes a bit longer than crocheting with nice yarn. But it’s worth it. :)

I wanted to make it yellow, blue, and white like the one on the pattern, but I just couldn’t find any store that either used blue bags or sold them (except I could buy them online). But I eventually gave up the search and decided I wouldn’t spend any money on the bag and do it with what I had, gray, white, and yellow. I really like the gray. And I never had to wait for a trip to the store for more bags, we had just enough. The gray was the shortest, and I had to plan each starfish wisely to make it stretch. The ones with the most gray are when I got confident I had plenty, and the ones with mostly white are when I got scared I’d run out! :D I had to confiscate any gray grocery bag that entered the house! But it wound up perfect. In total, I used about 140 bags. 12-13 for each motif, 6 or 7 for each strap, and 2 for the seaming. Also, I made the strap that went into the valleys 12 stitches longer than the one that attached to the peaks.

I read that you can remove the logos and writing from the bags with rubbing it with an old rag or sock dipped in rubbing alcohol, and I tried it and it does work. But I decided to leave the logos on as I liked the speckled affect.

Also, the motifs come out very crumpled looking, but once they are sewn together, that flattens them out pretty well.