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Turning Old Plastic Into Art at a Workshop in Derby, Connecticut

This is some advanced plarning. Participants in the Derby workshop will learn how to make plastic yarn and create some more basic designs. The workshop is free, but preregistration is required.

Those who knit and crochet are familiar with two standbys: needles and yarn, but there's a lesser-known material in the world of needlework -- plastic yarn, or "plarn."

If you have a lot of old plastic grocery bags hanging around your house, you could use them to clean up after the cat, or line a trash can in the bathroom.

Or you do something a little bit more ambitious: cut them up and then put them together to make a ball of plastic yarn.

Elaine Selling lives in Derby, Connecticut, and is a plarn instructor. She's going to be teaching a class at the Kellogg Environmental Center in Derby on Saturday, October 15.

"The assumption is if you can knit with yarn, you can knit with anything," Selling said.

Selling said her experiences with plarn began by making a small clutch purse -- she's also made water bottle covers and a placemat.

On Saturday, plarn pupils will get a chance to learn the basics of making the yarn -- and they'll learn how to knit or crochet with the material.

Pre-registration is required and if you have plastic bags you're looking to recycle into plarn, bring them.

Patrick Skahill is a reporter and digital editor at Connecticut Public. Prior to becoming a reporter, he was the founding producer of Connecticut Public Radio's The Colin McEnroe Show, which began in 2009. Patrick's reporting has appeared on NPR's Morning Edition, Here & Now, and All Things Considered. He has also reported for the Marketplace Morning Report. He can be reached at pskahill@ctpublic.org.

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