So I’m using these as ornaments for my Cozy Christmas tree, but knowing how to make a pom pom is a tool every crafter should have. These will be my workhorse ornaments on my tree, adding texture and color to the deep part of the tree, but I love them as package decorations, and of course, what inspired them in the first place, as hat toppers.
You can buy templates and tools to make perfectly consistent pom poms every time, but I prefer to use every crafter’s best tools – their hands.
Wrap your yarn around something, a whole bunch of times. That’s pretty much all there is to making a pom pom, you just have to decide what to wrap it around, and how many times. As I mentioned, I like to use my fingers. I just use a different number depending on how big I want to make the pom pom, and then I wrap and wrap and wrap until the yarn bundle is about as wide as it is tall. (It’s very scientific.)
When you’re satisfied with your wrapping job, run an end of the yarn through all the loops and pull it as tight as you can. Run it through a second time and tie a knot.
If you want a hanger like I have, run the end of the yarn through a third time and this time make a loop. Tie a knot around the loop to keep it in place. Another way to tell if you’ve wrapped enough to make it full is if the yarn nearly makes a circle when you tie that knot in it. This one is a little on the light side, but there’s a way to fix that.
Then you take a pair of scissors to your yarn and cut all those loops open, directly across from where you tied your knot. If it looks a little less than full it just means you didn’t get quite enough wraps to make it as tall as it is wide, so you just have to give it a haircut until it’s the same. Don’t aim for perfection here. Unless you’re a hairstylist you could obsess your way to your pom pom being a nub.
Plus, I think it looks a whole lot cuter if it’s a little on the ragged side. That’s what makes it charming and homespun, and not just something you picked up at the store.
These are so simple to make that soon you’ll find yourself looking for places to put another one. Seriously. Just ask Pinterest what you can do with a pom pom. Your computer might explode.
