Susan Bogensten grew up in rural Iowa she learned to crochet at age 5 with her Grandmother. Bogensten has always had a great respect for the environment. Growing up, one of her chores was to walk along the ditches and fence lines of her family farm, picking up all the trash that blew in from people carelessly littering. Bogensten hated seeing how much people littered. One of the most common items picked up was plastic bags. Bogensten thought that if plastic bags could be made into something stronger, and longer lasting maybe people wouldn’t discard them so readily. Bogensten started experimenting with cutting the plastic bags into strips and tying them together to create a long strand that she could crochet with. Bogensten started collecting plastic bags from friends and relative only to return their bags in a new stronger plarn bag. She then began branching out into rugs, hats, cozies, even sandals.