Get knitting with plastic!

Apr 22 2008 by Our Correspondent, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

Get knitting with plastic!

Our green columnist KATH ARMSTRONG finds a new use for the despised plastic bag.

HAVE you got a huge pile of plastic bags living under the sink. Don’t know what to do with them? Why not knit them up into a new bag?

Jean Starr from Huddersfield does just that. Over the past year she has designed and knitted a wide range of bags from clutch to tote to beach. They feature decorative motifs such as sunsets and flowers and all have been crafted from recycled plastic bags.

To knit a new bag she needs a good supply of old bags – it takes about 20 plastic carrier bags to make one tote bag. The plastic bags are cut into strips to form a yarn which is then knitted up - usually on No.6 needles. Mix and matching bags provides interest. The orange of the Sainsbury bags with the yellow of the Wilkinson’s bag and red of the Click photo bag for example. The finished bag is sewn together with plastic yarn. How long do they last? Well the first bag Jean knitted over a year ago is still going strong. What a great way to recycle.

The demand for Jeans knitted bags is high and her supply of carrier bags has been known to run out, so she has had to diversify. She now uses bin liners and even rubble sacks. Not, I must stress, pre-owned bin liners, but new ones bought from the shops. She favours scented pedal bin liners that come in range of pretty pastel shades and smell of strawberries and such like. Knitting them up has to be better then chucking them in landfill which is, as Jean has proved, just a waste of good plastic.

You might think that Jean would fear a plastic bag ban. But as she points out, if it did happen her Marks and Spencer clutch bag will become an antique overnight and quadruple in value.

If you want to knit a bag, or some sandals or even a 1950s dress go to www.bagfree08.wordpress.com for patterns.