Updated date:

Apr 29, 2012

Step by step instructions : How to make a pompom

Author:

How to make a pompom

Instructions on how to make a pom pom which can be made by both adults and children. It may just keep the children happy on a rain filled holiday

These are very easy to make, they can be used to adorn woolly hats or just suspended on knitting wool. The make great entertainment for cats who try to catch them

Materials

You need cardboard, scissors, yarn oddments and a tapestry needle.
If you are making for very young children omit the needle.
Cardboard can be found in almost every kitchen cupboard, breakfast cereal boxes are ideal.

Instructions

If you have a compass draw a circle with a smaller circle in the middle.
If you don’t have a compass looks through your cupboards and find two circular products, one about 1.25 inches smaller than the other, and draw around them.
If you are making for young children you can use a much bigger hole so that they do not have to use a needle, but be warned you have to be very accurate when tying them together.

You need two circles of card and you need to thread the knitting wool/yarn through both of them as if they were one.

Thread the needle with the yarn and wind it evenly around the card. Use only enough yarn on your needle that you are comfortable with.
If you use too much yarn you can find that it gets into tangles and knots and is really unmanageable when you are pulling it through the hole.
When you need to join in new yarn try and wrap the new yarn over the last end of the old yarn, by doing this it means that there is no need to tie a knot and join the yarn which might make the pom pom bobbily.

Work around the card evenly- covering initially the card and then the layers of yarn with further layers of yarn. Keep threading the yarn through until the hole is no longer visible. This means that the pom pom is nearly done. I find that they work better if they have a solid centre so I continue threading through with the needle until I really cant get any more yarn through the hole.

If you want to make a totally random coloured pom pom you need to thread the wool through and wrap around in an uneven pattern- the easiest way is just to change yarn colour every time you have used up the yarn on your needle.- this causes a speckled effect once the pom pom is finished.

Once we have the pom pom totally wrapped you need to take a pair of scissors and carefully insert them between the two pieces of card. Snip very carefully the wool along the edge of the card- all the way around so that eventually you have strands of yarn held together by the two pieces of cardboard.

Taking a length of yarn wrap it several times around the centre of the pom pom , knotting it at every turn- i try to knot mine at least half a dozen times.

Carefully snip into the card and peel both pieces of card off the pom pom.

Hold the pom pom up in the air and gently trim any odd strands- however carefully you have worked there always seem to be odd lengths of yarn.

Your pom pom is now complete.

For the child's pom pom with the big hole, wrap the yarn around the hole so that it covers for about four times around the circle. Taking great care follow the above instructions to snip and tie the pom pom.

Cut two circles of card with an inner circle

If making with young children use a much bigger hole and no needle

For the speckled pattern wind the yarn at odd intervals

The centre is gone and no more yarn can be passed through

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Comments

amord on January 26, 2013:

Nice Hub, thanks for sharing .

CASE1WORKER (author) from UNITED KINGDOM on October 26, 2010:

Thanks Waynet, reemhman and Jame Brock

hope you are all making your pom poms!

Jamie Brock from Texas on October 26, 2010:

Love Love Love! Thank you for sharing!

Jamie Brock

www.euphoriccrafting.blogspot.com

reemhmam on October 26, 2010:

ya good idea

thanks

Wayne Tully from Hull City United Kingdom on October 24, 2010:

Oh yeah glitter wool would be better! lol!

CASE1WORKER (author) from UNITED KINGDOM on October 24, 2010:

if you get some glitter wool- it will give it a bit more razz - perhaps raffia? any problems let me know- hopefully the instructions are clear- and these pom poms were made by me at the pub whilst the other half watched the tigers win some sort of rugby match!!

Wayne Tully from Hull City United Kingdom on October 24, 2010:

That's ace! My daughter would like to do this, as she had some high school musical pom poms that disintegrated, so a woollen type pair would be much better.

I showed her this the other day and she says every five minutes when are we going to make a pom pom? Better buy some wool!

CASE1WORKER (author) from UNITED KINGDOM on July 17, 2010:

Good fun for all ages and you can always trim the ends if you make a mistake!

Anamika S Jain from Mumbai - Maharashtra, India on July 17, 2010:

Wonderful! I will give this a try!