My Gretchen Bag

Sometime ago (Early 2010 I think) I made a barter with one of my student workers, Gretchen.  See, Gretchen is an infinitely crafty person and was always working on some sort of crafty project when I wasn't keeping her busy with library stuff.  She, growing up on an island, is also quite an ecoconscious person which was reflected in many of her projects.  I had seen her making plastic yarn (plarn) out of used plastic grocery bags which she then transformed into knit/crochet bags.  I coveted her plastic-bag bags long enough that we struck up a trade--two tie-dye t-shirts for a bag.  Looking at it now I think I inadvertently swindled her as there was so much more time involved in making the bag.  I'll have to make that up to her some time....

So flash forward to December 2011 and the handle was starting to tear.  We'd overfilled it probably more times than I could count.  Prime example:  At one music festival (where camping and parking were far apart) we loaded it up with easily 40 pounds of gear.  It held.  It held a lot!  (Think about how strong one single plastic bag is and then imagine hundreds of them woven together.  It is pretty strong stuff.)  But, at last it seemed we'd abused the poor bag too far.  Matt asked if I thought I could mend it and I said I would try....not feeling terribly hopeful I must admit.

In the end it came together so much easier and better than I could have hoped.

I made up a small ball of plarn, only a couple of bags.  Using my fingers and a crochet hook I wove the new plarn through the exposed loops at the tear, weaving back and forth a couple times.  The whole repair job took less than an hour, including making the plarn.  And now my Gretchen Bag (as it is affectionately called) is back in working order.  Hip, hip hooray!

I love fixing things.  It is so much more satisfying that just replacing them.  (And after fixing the Gretchen Bag I tackled my mending pile.  It is like I went shopping!  Like I'd gotten new clothes without spending a dime!  Awesome.)