Helping the environment and saving people money with a new type of crocheting is Accounts Payable Clerk Ginger Santiago’s passion.
Santiago acquired her crafting skills from family tradition and began crocheting in high school. Her mother paints and her grandmother knits, so Santiago picked up on crocheting.
Santiago found a new form of crafting, called plarning, from searching on the internet. She thought it would help her create things for her grandchildren.
“I knew I was going to make the grandkids stuff often, but I didn’t want to spend all the money at one time,” Santiago said. “Plarning is a free way for me to make whatever I want.”
Plarning involves cutting plastic grocery bags into strings similar to yarn and then crocheting them together. Santiago says she has received many bags from her coworkers.
“I got everyone in the office to bring me their grocery bags, which is when I really started having fun,” she said.
Santiago says she did not realize until she made several items that she was recycling in a fun way.
“Plarning is a free hobby that helps the environment as well, and it can’t get much better than that,” Santiago said.
Santiago’s plarning helps save the environment and helps her customers save money. Santiago’s mother sells her own paintings, as well as Santiago’s plarning items.
“Since the plastic bags are free, the items sell for just a few dollars, which helps a lot in today’s world,” Santiago said.
Purses, coasters, sandals, cup holders and hats are just a few of the items that can be made through plarning. Since different stores have different color bags, all kinds of patterns evolve from plarning.
“It is something different, so most people admire the idea of plarning,” Santiago said.
Santiago says she’d be happy to help anyone else learn this helpful hobby.
“I would be happy to teach anyone how to participate in this free hobby of plarning,” Santiago said.