Make it Up

I’m making something for my sister-in-law. This is weird because, as my 4 year old put it, “she knows everything about yarn knitting!” But this isn’t yarn knitting, it’s plarn crocheting. Not that my amazing sister-in-law couldn’t manage it, she just knows I work with plarn and doesn’t have a ton of time to cut up plastic bags herself.

The pattern she sent me is for a yarn holder (yes, a yarn holder made of plarn). Instead of punching a hole in the side of a Tupperware bin and putting your yarn in there, you can crochet one. I glanced over the pattern, took the advice for a back post crochet stitch when transitioning from the base to the sides, and then just took off on my own. I’ve worked with enough patterns of this kind to just kind of make it up as I go along.

The pattern ends up being a bowl-shaped thing with a hole in the side for yarn. “But,” I thought, “What if one of the kids knocks it off the table/couch/lap where it’s sitting? The yarn will go everywhere.” There was only one solution: it needed a lid, but the pattern didn’t have one. What could I do? Well, I could leave the finished product lidless and let my sister-in-law’s yarn escape, or I could do what people did before Ravelry existed.

I could make it up myself.

All patterns are made up patterns.

I think the yarn holder is going to be pretty cute once I’m finished with it, and it’s nice to be making something with plarn that doesn’t take me months and months. Of course, it’s not using as many plastic bags as a reusable Bag the Bag is, but that’s okay. It’s going to be nice to have a finished product that doesn’t make me hate working with plarn before I’m finished with it.

Maybe when I’m done, I’ll make something similar: a basket or something. And if I can’t find a pattern for it, I’m sure I’ll be fine just making it up as I go along.

May the Fourth Bag Be With You... FOREVER

It was fun to watch this thing grow. It got so tall so fast!

Every time I make one of these, I do the handles a little differently. This time, I started the handles from the very beginning (just like the last one), but instead of starting them at the vertical edge, I started them on the bottom of the bag, to give it a little bit of extra stability. The thing I didn’t do was make the handles on the inside and out. I just did them on the outside. I figured that would be enough, and then of course changed my mind when I got near the end. 

The inside-out bag, after I'd started working on the "inside" handles

Having to worry about finishing the handles is the worst part about making a bag like this, but I definitely think that this was the best way so far. I always drag my feet when finishing the handles, but the coolest part about that this time?

I finished the bag on May 4th.

4th Count: THE END (143 1/2 bags!)

May the Fourth Bag Be With You... Again

The most amusing part about making this bag was picking out the materials I was going to use to make it. Every time I finished ten bags, I’d stalk back to my (still rather gigantic) bag collection on the back porch and pick out ten new ones. I’d try to get ten of similar color: yellow ones along with white ones with yellow on them, orange ones with white ones with bits of orange. I didn’t know how it would turn out, but I think it turned out pretty nice. 

Another cool thing about this project was using all sorts of different sized bags. Some of them were tiny ones I’d brought home from the dentist filled with floss and new toothbrushes. And others were gigantic!

The great big Target bag became one of the handles, and the lovely purple stripe was contributed by a bag which once contained delicious snacks: a Frito Lay Flavor Mix variety pack.

Next week’s exciting continuation will be right here, same blog time, same blog… blog!

4th Count: 80

May the Fourth Bag Be With You

Well ladies and gentlemen, I have successfully finished three entire bags made of recycled grocery bags. Nothing remains for me to do but to retire into the prosperity of never having to buy a reusable grocery bag for 99 cents at the store.

And, of course, to make another one.

I wasn’t quite sure how I wanted to go when I started, nor did I have a snappy name to call it. I saw that I had a large amount of Target bags, so I decided to use them up and then plan where to go from there. 

It’s amazing how fast a project like this will go when you’re not paying much attention while working on it. I made this entire bag while playing Dragon Age 2, a fantasy RPG. The great thing about games like these is the wonderful story. Some gamers complain about long cut scenes between the action, but that’s what Dragon Age is about. So in between the swordy bits when the characters were talking, I’d crochet.

I used a P sized hook, and in less than a week, I’d used up all my white and red Target bags, plus three green and gold Cabela’s bags, just to round it off to an even 40.

Tune in next week for the exciting continuation of Bag the Bag Part 4: May the Fourth Bag Be With You (as in, with you at the grocery store)!

4th Count: 40

Trilogy Bag Count: THE END

Well, my friends, it is time for THE END of Bag the Bag Part Three: the Sequel to the Sequel. I tried as hard as I could to use the exact same kind of bag this time, but I ran out. I also attempted to make the handles a little less of a pain, but that didn’t quite work either.

I did use 140 of the same kind of bag, a white Hy Vee bag with some black writing and a big red Husker N, and finished the last handle with a different kind of white Hy Vee bag (it had black writing and featured a red recycle symbol instead).

The handles were easier than I’d ever attempted before, but when I finished the body it really felt like they weren’t going to be strong enough, so I had to add another layer to them. It wasn’t as bad as stitching the handle on, but still slow and not terribly fun.

Someday, I will be able to make a bag out of recycled bags that is really fun to make and has strong handles.

Trilogy Final Bag Count: 147

Trilogy Bag Count: 140

Friends, disaster has struck.

I had to stop at 139 because I ran out of bags. Then I found one more in a closet, and was able to finish up the count, but now I’m Husker bag-less, and it doesn’t look like Hy Vee has any more. They’ve switched to a different design. It has all the same colors, though.

I’ll probably finish it up with the new design, but it won’t all be the same! That makes me a bit sad, but then I remember that I’ve used one hundred forty of the same kind of bag to get this far, and that’s pretty rad.

I’ve only got one side of a handle left to go, and then Bag the Bag Part 3: the Sequel to the Sequel will be finished!

Trilogy Bag Count: 140

Trilogy Bag Count: 130

Whenever I say something like “I’m almost done!” it turns out that I have a ton more to do. Ugh, handles take so much longer than the body of the bag, and it’s so disheartening to get to the end of one bag and find out that you’ve only done an inch and a half of work. Come onnnn, I want to be finished with this already!

Trilogy Bag Count: 130

Trilogy Bag Count: 120

Joined some handles! I think things will go very quickly from here. I can tell that I’m almost done!

Trilogy Bag Count: 120

Trilogy Bag Count: 110

HANDLES.

I couldn’t exactly decide how I was going to work the separate sides together. Once all four handles reached a length to start crocheting them together, I tried a couple of different ways of accomplishing it.

On one side, I simply crocheted the ends together, then took it apart because it wasn’t strong enough. On the other, I worked one handle long enough to attach to the other side, then decided to lash everything together the same way I had been adding the handle little by little to the bag.

It’s still going to take some time, but not as much as the way I did it before, and I’m sure it’ll be much less frustrating.

Notice the slightly weird lean of the not-quite-finished handle.

Trilogy Bag Count: 110

Trilogy Bag Count: 100

I’m finally ready to stop working on the body of this thing and get to the handles. I’m still not sure how it’s going to work out, but I’m excited.

Trilogy Bag Count: 100

Trilogy Bag Count: 90

Providing a progress update would mean that I’d have to stop crocheting.

CAN’T EAT. CAN’T SLEEP. CAN’T WRITE. MUST CROCHET.

Trilogy Bag Count: 90

Trilogy Bag Count: 80

Apparently when you put video gaming and crocheting together, the result is tons of progress.

After not working on this project all week, I sat down on Wednesday afternoon with my crocheting in my lap to play Dragon Age 2. I played and crocheted during the loading screens and talky parts. That evening when I sat down to watch a movie with my kids, I discovered I only had 2 bags left!

Now it is my intention to sit down and play video games for several hours.

Trilogy Bag Count: 80

Trilogy Bag Count: 70

Every time I stop and look at this thing I wonder how much longer it will be before I’m done. The first one I made used up almost a hundred bags, so… it’s not so tall yet that I’ve started measuring it, though.

Maybe next week.

Trilogy Bag Count: 70

Trilogy Bag Count: 60

Bag the Bag Part 3: the Sequel to the Sequel is getting taller. I’m still working on the handles as I go along, but I’m afraid that once I finish the body I’ll start procrastinating on it… more than usual. I still haven’t quite decided how I’m going to finish attaching the handles, but I’m sure I’ll figure it out. At least the handles will be easier to finish than the previous ones.

Trilogy Bag Count: 60

Trilogy Bag Count: 50

The only thing yarn does when you work with it in the winter is to keep you warm while you’re working. I made an 8 pound blanket one time (it was meant to be more of a 4 pound blanket but I got carried away) and I was so snuggly while working on it. I never had the yarn stick to my arm or the wall, or cause me to get shocked whenever I touched something metal.

Plarn, on the other hand…

Another great reason that I keep it all wound up around a stick is so that I don’t have to peel it off the wall when I’m ready to use it.

Trilogy Bag Count: 50

Trilogy Bag Count: ...still 40

I did zero crafting this week. I did lots of sleeping and coughing and whining and drinking orange juice instead. I did cut up some more bags, so Bag the Bag Part 3: the Sequel to the Sequel did advance, in a way.

Really, it’s miraculous I got this much done.

Crafting goes much easier when you have materials to craft with.

Trilogy Bag Count: ...still 40

Trilogy Bag Count: 40

Previous Bag the Bag projects have seemed to be progressing both faster and slower than this one. I wasn’t stopping at predetermined points to look at how many bags I’d used, it was just “oh well, it’s Friday, time for a photo shoot,” and if I hadn’t made much progress at all, I’d feel bad, and if I’d made tons, I’d feel good. Since I’m paying attention to how much Bag the Bag I get out of ten recycled bags, it’s different. And since this project has a different handle-making process, I get confused.

The handles grow taller at a different rate than the rest of the bag. A handle needs a new bag about every fifteen or so bags tall in the body. The result is that last week, Bag the Bag Part 3: the Sequel to the Sequel got significantly taller, and this week, it didn’t seem to have grown much higher at all. I was a little sad about this until I remembered that I ran out of bag on all the handles and had to replace them, so I really only used six bags on the body instead of the usual ten. I have to keep reminding myself that doing the handles this way will save a LOT of time in the end, even though it’s a bit inconvenient right now.

I’ve also reached that point again; it’s time. I have to cut a whole bunch of bags. It’s an arduous process that involves lots of static electricity, plarn everywhere for several days, and discovering which of the bags I hadn’t realized were covered in something sticky. I always look forward to getting back to the crochet part after playing with scissors and winding plarn. I could just cut the bags as I crochet, but it’s nice to have a definite way to keep track of how many bags I’m using and it also keeps the plarn neatly in one place, all ready to go.

I wonder how much more plarn I’ll need to cut before this thing is finished!
Trilogy Bag Count: 40

Trilogy Bag Count: 30

I called my mother several times on the way home from my grandparents’ Christmas Eve festivities this year. First, it was because we’d forgotten one of the kids’ presents and to mention that there was a guy behind us who wouldn’t turn his brights off. Then, it was because the guy with the brights ended up being a county police officer who pulled us over for allegedly speeding and failing to stop at “several” stop signs. A little later I called my mom again when we got stopped for the second time to let her know why: apparently there had been a domestic dispute nearby and the police just happened to be on the lookout for a car like ours. At the end of the conversation, I added, “oh, I completely forgot my crochet hook! Will you look for it and just stick it in with the other stuff, and I’ll get it tomorrow?”

No crochet hook is exactly like another, even if they’re the same size. Different brands and different styles have different shapes, and if you change hooks halfway through a project, there is a noticeable difference, at least to my eye.

When I walked in to the kitchen at my parents’ house the next day, a green crochet hook was sitting on the table. “That’s not my crochet hook,” I said, pointing at it. “I was hoping she wouldn’t notice,” my mother murmured to my sister-in-law.

I took it home anyway; it’s not like I’m making a delicate shawl. It’s just good ol’ Bag the Bag. And honestly, I haven’t noticed much of a difference. Instead, I’m just glad to be working on it again.

It’s funny to think about how far I haven’t come in six months in this project. But when I consider how many other things I’ve made in that time period: Hufflescarff, an entire Ravenclaw Winter Set, the completion of Bag the Bag Part 2: the Electric Boogaloo, finally being done with that Crochet Cable Stocking, and Piano Scarf! (That looks like only five things, but considering that the Winter Set was four different pieces, I think I can safely state that I’m awesome.)

Ten bags went pretty quickly this time; I finished them off in one evening of crocheting while reading five different books at once. (See? Awesome.) Bag the Bag Part 3: the Sequel to the Sequel is getting taller. Soon I will be far enough along that I’ll be out of the “beginning” phase and well and truly into the “middle.” I’m not looking forward to the “end,” because that means handles. Even though I’m doing it differently this time, I’m still not excited about finishing up. Someday I will have made so many of these bags that I won’t even care about finishing the handles, or I’ll have come up with an awesome way of doing it so that I won’t need to whine or complain anymore.

And maybe someday, in the far distant future, I’ll remember to take them with me to use at the grocery store.

Trilogy Bag Count: 30

Boogaloo Bag Count: THE END

Ladies and gentlemen: Bag the Bag Part 2: the Electric Boogaloo is FINISHED.

Last weekend I was looking for a new project, just having finished my Ravenclaw Winter Set, and realized that I don’t need a new project because I have plenty of old ones sitting around that just need to be completed so they can get out of the way already.

Obligatory growth chart:

One hundred sixteen bags were used to make this one reusable grocery bag: 28 yellow Super Saver bags with red and black writing, 1 yellow No Frills bag with black writing, 1 white Gander Mountain bag with maroon and hunter green writing, 1 tan Office Max bag with black and lime green writing, a length of light green plastic ribbon, 1 white Raising Cane’s bag with red, yellow, and black writing, 1 blue Lincoln Food Bank bag with black writing, 1 white Popeyes bag with maroon and orange writing, 1 purple and copper Teavana bag with white writing, 2 tiny white “Smile” bags with blue, yellow, green, and red accents that the dentist sent home with me, a tiny bit of pink plastic ribbon, 14 dark green small Earth Aware packaging bags with gray writing, 1 tan King Soopers bag with red writing, 1 gray Kohl’s bag with black writing, 23 gray Hy Vee bags with red and black writing, 1 white Barnes & Noble (Nook Color) bag with black, red, yellow, green, and blue accents, 1 small translucent blue newspaper bag, 1 white Our Family bag with red, yellow, & green writing, 1 tan Home Depot bag with orange and green writing, 1 Medical Center of Aurora patient clothing storage bag with orange accents, 20 translucent Hy Vee “recycle” bags with red and black writing, a tiny bit of blue plastic ribbon, 1 large translucent green Earth Friendly Eco-Max dry cleaning bag with white writing, 13 small translucent AIR plus packaging bags with blue writing, and 1 super tiny translucent Fill-Air Extreme packaging bag with green writing.

Using lots of different kinds of bags makes Bag the Bag Part 2: the Electric Boogaloo look awesome. It wasn’t so fun to keep track of every single kind of bag I used (or to type them all up), but it’s so much more fun-looking than the original Bag the Bag, with its blue and white bags, or how uniform Bag the Bag Part 3: the Sequel to the Sequel will look, since I’m using the same kind of bag for the whole thing. The Electric Boogaloo looks like a “leftover yarn” project, when you use the rest of a skein or ball of yarn to make a blanket or scarf. It’s unique.

It was also a pain in the butt. I’m never using those thick Earth Aware packaging bags or a Teavana bag ever again, since they’re so thick I could hardly get a hook through while attaching the handles.

I do want to do another Bag the Bag project with different colored bags, but next time I will use a much larger hook.

Here’s Bag the Bag Part 2: the Electric Boogaloo in its glorious, finally finished form!

Boogaloo Bag Count: THE END