Er… Fantastic plastics?

You won’t see me write a title like that very often!

I’m in the middle of crocheting a bag from, er, bags. The company that delivers my groceries insists on using polythene bags instead of boxes, so I want to get a lot of use out of them before I pass them back for recycling. The polythene I am crocheting with is thicker than the usual bags and it also has a crisper texture, so the project is looking good – reminiscent of a supple basket weave.

When it’s finished, I’m going to use the bag for all my shopping in town as a sort of silent, private protest against our Official Reusable Town Bag. Honestly, it’s a lot of nonsense. A local shop arranged for an apparently very well-known designer to come up with a a reusable bag for our town. The result, which costs £10, is eagerly being snapped up by the town’s Yummy Mummy crowd (so lots of trade for the enterprising shop, then), but what they apparently haven’t noticed is that the design and materials are very reminiscent of similar bags you could pick up on a market stall for £2 back in the 1980’s. Big pink and white script on a big black canvassy tote. Remember those? Sheesh. It was OK back then, but isn’t the idea of just putting a bunch of words all over a black bag just bad design? Meanwhile, the majority of the people buying them are using them as handbags so they are still picking up more polythene bags at the supermarket checkouts, and the designer is knocking out these bags for any town or city that asks for them. ! Grah!

Breathe now, must find calm. Yes, hold something handmade, that feels better.

I’ve run out of these polythene bags for the moment, so I can’t do much more with this right now. …I have, however, got loads of purple bags, so I might start another one off while I build up my supplies of orange and green. The grocery deliveryman saw my bag-in-progress and wanted to know how to make one, so I found myself standing at the front door, teaching him how to crochet! He confirmed that he could take my crocheted bag away for recycling when it eventually wears out, but I think it should last for years so long as I don’t scuff the base by putting it on the ground too much…

The other picture is of the lovely geometric design Flame created one afternoon with her box of shapes. I think she might enjoy designing quilts.

Entry plonked in Crochet @ 12:53 pm
Tagged thusly: Crochet, polythene bags