Underwear necklace

My co-worker, Tina, grew up in Riverton. I grew up in Magna. Tina is amazed that I had never before heard of inmates making necklaces out of sting pulled from their underwear. Wait, what? They do that? Gross. Sure they do that. Tina's husband sent her one. Wasn't that romantic of him? Of course, it was years ago... How talented are they to be able to take string (did I mention that it was from their UNDERWEAR) and create something such as this (the picture shown is actually Tina's necklace from her husband that she brought in to work to prove to me that this practice actually occurs. I refused to touch it) to trade for things they need? They don't get a lot of money so how lucky are they to be able to do this. And I'm pretty much assuming, that after learning from Tina that they are issued new underwear every day that this had to have been made from used underwear since he had to be actually wearing that days underwear when he made it? Or not I suppose... I wouldn't think that growing up in Magna would qualify me to know the ins and outs and habits of inmates. I can't say I've ever actually even known anyone at any time who's done time. My dad was a guard at the prison for six years... I called him. He didn't know about it. I called up my sister Kristin who is a guard at a county jail, she had. Huh. Tina was floored and amazed I hadn't heard of it. Quite frankly I'm not apologizing for my ignorance on this particular subject.