Those plastic bags

Over at her blog, Salihah by Sea, Salihah wrote about jurisdictions trying to cut down on plastic bag waste. Now, I have a largish collection of grungy-looking canvas bags (even when they've been washed, they still look grungy. *sigh*) and even one cute little heart shaped bag - it's actually a grocery sized bag that folds down into it's own zippered pouch - useful, handy, and very, very cute. There is also a version that is a rectangle. The cute bag lives in my craft bag that goes everywhere with me, along with my crochet hook collection and a few random balls of yarn. That way, any impulse grocery runs can be easily cloth bagged, and I try to remember a few of the grungy bags for larger runs.

But I also have a work in progress that I consider both incredibly appropriate and well, hard on the hands. I'm crocheting a bag out of plastic shopping bags. Essentially, you cut the bags into strips, then use the strips as yarn. It's slow going, not just because I'm making the "yarn" as well as crocheting it, but because I can't do it for very long at any one time - there's no stretch or give at all. Even cotton, which is notoriously hard on the hands, is easier. I also found along the way, that 1 grocery bag makes up nicely into 1 "scrubby" - cut the bag in a spiral after removing the bottom seam (while most instructions tell you to cut off the handles, too, I just sort of incorporate them in the spiral). Then crochet a circle using all the plastic. If you just hold it in your hand, it will feel soft, like a bunched up plastic bag (which it essentially is), but if you rub it against your hand, you can feel how it works as a scrubbie.

Excuse me?

The New York Times has an article on those of us fools and nutcases who would prefer to see less waste over the holidays. It is, of course, presented as those austere green grinches verses the merry traditionalists.

*sigh*

My er... favorite part of the article is the characterization of a "call for less excessive consumption during the holidays" as "un- American". Oy.

For the record, my gifts, mostly homemade, all in reusable bags or containers, are also ones that I think the recipients will enjoy. For those who can't or shouldn't have sweets, I'll be roasting cashews with spices and including a card with the recipe. Frankly, small gifts of handmade candy rarely wind up in the trash. And since I'm putting the effort in, anyway, I can personalize the gifts with little additional work: an initial worked in a crocheted cloth is not difficult, once you've already decided to do the cloth. Nor is choosing colors that the person enjoys to begin with. And I don't think the recipient of that gift will be tossing it, either.

And apparantly, they ran a different version of the same story last year. Come on, people, this isn't difficult. (And just a hint: it's a good idea to turn the thermostat down during parties, because lots of people in a small space generate plenty of heat. It gets warm fast if you don't.)

The scrap bag

Oh, the joys of the scrap bag - that will sound odd, I guess, to anyone who has never been the happy possessor of one. I confess - mine is not only where I keep my *own* bits of cloth that didn't fit into a project - the bits to even up a hem, the fabric from inside the neckhole, the bit at the end of a bolt where the pattern went wrong. I've even cheated and bought (at very reasonable prices) the bits of cloth the local cloth store trimmed when evening up ends of quilting fabrics.

It's colorful, and fanciful, practical and thrifty. It's recycling from the old days. A rag bag is the place where doll clothes come from - anything from peasant to Empress (after all, how much use is left in that bit of leftover cloth from the table runner that turned out to be too long? A perfect skirt to be matched to the bit of gold satin ribbon left from holiday decorations and the trim found at the thrift store...) It's an inspiration before Halloween - Do you think there's enough of this red to make a pirate's sash, or is it the headscarf? Or maybe this bit would be the wings of a fairy if we glued it to a bit of wire... It's where little decorative, reusable bags for giftgiving come from. The tiniest scraps even can go into a small bag, for use in making homemade paper projects.

It's the starting place of quilts - where the hem trimmings from a dress might sit beside the fancy cloth from the quilt store trimmings and so on. The bigger pieces might be cut into squares for elaborate piecing, or perhaps used as they are with feathered embroidery stitches for a crazy quilt. I have on my couch a much treasured pillow that came from my mother's scrapbag - the scraps and bits that were left over from my wedding - my dress, the bridesmaids' and flowergirls' dresses all pieced together. Also on my couch is the first quilt I made, from scraps and pieces left over from making my sister and myself dresses one spring, and also the leftover bits from making the gingham curtains from my first room that I didn't have to share.

And before even making anything, there's the simple fun of rummaging through the bits and pieces - look at this blue, doesn't it look like the ocean? What about this green with the stars? Wow, this red is bright! And then laying them out, choosing colors and shapes - no cutting yet, just lay them out together, folding and layering to get the basic ideas... Maybe setting aside a few colors and bits that seem to go together particularly well - these colors look like a sky, or those like a cliff-face.

I think the scrap bag, like the button collection (yes, I cut them off clothing that has completely worn out), and the bag of stuff to be mended or repurposed (like the jumper I found at a thrift store that made a lovely apron) needs to be brought back into the modern consciousness. Energy goes into the making of that cloth, those buttons. Rather than cheating ourselves by allowing so much to go to waste, shouldn't we think about reclaiming all the use we can out of those resources?