Plastic Yarn Mats For The Homeless

To make the mats plastic bags are cut into 4 inch strips and looped together to make plarn or plastic yarn.

Plastic yarn mats for the homeless.

As sleeping mats they re more hygienic water proof easily transportable and provide protection from the cold concrete. Cut off the plastic bag handles and the bottom of the bag. The plastic serves as a great insulator and barrier to the cold ground. Start with about 10 plastic bags at a time.

I used size 10 5 knitting needles with a gauge of 3 5 stitches per inch but i am a very loose knitter. Rather than throwing them out you can reuse them by crocheting them into multi purpose mats known as plarn plastic yarn. Straighten out each bag by pulling at the end and the handles so that it becomes as nice smooth and flat as the plastic bag in the picture. It takes about 100 hours to make one mat.

Knitters and crocheters will use their experience to test the gauge which will determine the number of plarn stitches necessary for a 3 by 6 mat. Plastic bags are brought into the library. However these mats were not made of yarn straw or bamboo. How to make plarn plastic bag yarn the first time i learned about plarn yarn created by cutting and tying together strips of plastic grocery bags was in 2005 when british designer erika knight was a guest on a tv show i used to host called knitty gritty she showed it made using a rainbow variety of bags an array of which i have yet to come across here in the states and knitted into a.

The plarn is then crocheted to make the mat. Knit or crochet a test gauge with. Come on let s make some mats how to crochet a plastic sleeping mat step 1. Parking lot gets turned into a safe haven for the homeless at night.

The goal is a 3 by 6 size plastic yarn mat. Since 2017 the group with help from community volunteers has donated about 50 bed mats to people experiencing homelessness in salt lake city. They take thousands of used plastic grocery bags and crochet them into mats for people experiencing homelessness to sleep on. Most of the yarn and bags she uses are donated from the community.

It takes about 500 bags to make a two and a half feet by six foot mat. It takes 700 plastic bags to make a 6 foot tall mat with two inch straps and carry handle. The mats are made of plarn or plastic yarn crafted out of bags that are sliced into pieces and looped into a long chain. In particular plarn can be used as sleeping mats for people without access to shelter.