It's not long until my birthday (yipee!) and although very exciting, I typically hadn't given it much thought until Easter Sunday; when the family gathered and everyone started asking me what I wanted for my birthday. I'm pretty useless when it comes to my birthday, I never know what I want and so after a lot of deflecting, my mum finally pinned me down and we went shopping. Whilst out, I stumbled across a jumper covered in pom poms and it got me thinking about making some of my own. On my way home, I popped into a craft shop and bought myself some wool. I wanted something subtle but colourful (contradictory I know!) but found this gorgeous Dolly Mix white wool which has flecks of red, yellow, green and blue in it. I've got lots of ideas for future pom pom-based DIY's and so thought it would be helpful to start with the basics and share with you how I made them.
Wool or Yarn Fork Sharp scissors
1. Cut off a short length of wool (Wool A). This piece of wool will act as the middle of our pom pom and hold everything together. I have this as the first step as it can be handy to have it ready and waiting for when you need it.
2. Take the end of the wool (that is still attached to the ball; Wool B) and place it in the fork. This wool needs to between the first and second prong of the fork (as above). Hold the fork in your left hand, and use your thumb to hold this end of wool down.
3. Wrap wool B around the fork approximately 50 times. Holding the fork in your left hand and holding wool A down with your thumb, use your right hand to wrap the wool around the fork on top of the end your thumb is holding down. Wrap around approximately 50 times.
4. Cut the wool (Wool B) so that the ball is no longer attached. This should be holding itself in place nicely now so put the fork down and cut wool B so that it is no longer attached to the wool ball.
5. Using wool A wrap a single loose knot around the wrapped wool (wool B). To do this, keep hold of the end of wool B and push the wrapped wool up the fork so that you have some space above and below it. Push the short length of wool (Wool A), through the second and third prongs under the wrapped wool (Wool B) and bring the two ends up and over the wrapped wool to tie a single loose knot.
6. Remove the fork and secure the knot with a second tight knot. Holding on to wool A, pull or push the wrapped wool (wool B) off of the fork. Tighten the knot in wool A and secure it tightly with a second knot.
7. Using the scissors, trim off any excess wool. At this point, you are likely to have 3 pieces of wool that are wider than the radius of the wrapped wool. Trim all of these so that they are the same length as the radius or just slightly longer.
8. Cut through the loops of the wrapped wool (Wool B) to create the pom pom. For this step you need really sharp scissors. Pick up your wrapped wool (which will be something like a flat-ish disc at this point). Holding it in one hand, use your scissors at the edges of the 'disc' to cut through the loops of wool.
9. Shape the pom pom in your hands roughly. Now that all the wool is released, you should have something that looks a bit like a disheveled pom pom. Roll this between the palms of your hands to make it a bit more spherical.
10. Using the scissors, trim the pom pom to make it more uniformly round. This is possibly my favourite step and each and every time makes me question whether I should have been a hairdresser. Use your scissors to give your pom pom a lovely little haircut and make it look as uniformly round as you can.
This is such a simple way of making pom poms and even better, you only need a few materials, 2 of which (the fork and scissors) you've probably already got! Once you've got the hang of it, its quite a cathartic process and one in which it is pretty easy to mindlessly bash out one pom pom after the other. I'm not sure who first came up with this particular method, sadly it wasn't me, but whoever you are, I applaud you!
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