Saving the Earth One Plastic Stitch At a Time?

My children are enjoying the start of their Spring break, but this doesn't mean that their minds have checked out on a learning/teaching opportunity.

No, rather my son has been on a "Save the World" campaign ever since he learned in school that every minute 300 yards (the size of 3 football fields, or 2 baseball fields) of forests are destroyed.  He wants the United States to tell other countries to stop chopping down their trees because we (we in the sense of the whole world) need them.  I asked him why America can't look inward first to see that we too are chopping down trees for shopping plazas & such at an alarming rate.  I asked him to just look at our own small town and think, in just the past few years, how our hills once green with trees are now dotted with many, many houses.  He's still thinking on that one.

But, being aware of his desire to save the world, and wanting to impress this seven year old, I opted to do a little recycling.  I'm already using my icing/frosting containers to create pencil/hook holders, complete with freeform covers.  So I decided to look to my grocery bags that I normally recycle back to the grocery stores I frequent.  As I looked over my plastic bag collection, I recalled the 2004 CGOA Conference Member's Fashion Show where Kelsey Schill showed off her "Home Depot" Faux Burberry Bag -- and thought I could do something along those lines.

I grabbed the shopping bags and started cutting, preparing the plastic into crochetable strips.  Then I set to work crocheting the material.  Thus far I have the bottom and part of the sides completed.  My son stood next to me for a very long time last night, watching.  Watching me yarn over and pulling the plastic material through various loops; the plastic making little crinkling noises.  "You know, Mom," he said with a big grin, "I think it's great you're saving the world one stitch at a time."  :)


If you're interested in crocheting with your plastic shopping bags, then check out the following links:

About.com: Plastic Bag Crochet: please note the figure images the article references are MIA but there's enough info there to get you started

Marlos Crochet Corner: Instructions for making a Round Plastic Tote Bag; she also includes one way on how to cut & join the plastic bags

Ebay: keep an eye on the auctions (using words like crochet plastic) to find various booklets published with patterns featuring plastic grocery bags!