Tuesday, February 14, 2017

We are making recycled sleeping mats for the homeless

At my middle school we have clubs every Friday afternoon. My club is called ARTreach where the children make art for the community. This month we started collecting recycled plastic bags, making plarn and learning to crochet so that we can make sleeping mats for the homeless.  Fortunately, my Great-Grandmom had taught us how to crochet as children. So with the help of youtube and memory I have mastered crocheting once again. 
Making Plarn (plastic yarn) from recycled bags. Here's a how to:

I've been using the cardboard center of the paper towels we use in the classroom to house the plarn. I cut a notch on one side to start and just keep wrapping. We are using gift bags to house the plarn, crochet hook (size P) and our start to the mat. It keeps the plarn from rolling across the room. We plan to make the mats about 30"x72"