How To Make Pom Poms

The  pom pom battlefield

Now, already we've been divided into those who've looked at this post title and gone "Huh. A how to? For pom poms? The simplest thing to happen to wool since cats?" and those who've gone "Ooooh! You can...make them?"

Yes, pom poms! Brilliant for pretty much everything, and if you're particularly crafty or smug, you can sew them onto the hats you're knitting for Christmas.

I, sadly, am not crafty, to the extent that I spent an entire day schlepping around haberdashers  trying to find red pom poms to sew onto a costume. It didn't even occur to me until hour four that I could - you know. Make them myself.

Brilliantly,  they are just obscenely easy to make. I made mine with the help of Kid Craft Central while watching X Factor, shouting obscenities at the television and yarning, like a latterday Madame Dufarge.

You will need:

• wool
• card (I butchered my packet of Weetos)
• scissors
• pencil
• round object
• 2p piece

Make it!

Palm-sized pom!

Draw a circle as large as you want your pom pom to be. I wanted one I could fit in the palm of my hand, so I used my moisturiser pot - I don't own a pair of compasses, and it was about two inches in diameter.
 
I then used my one inch 2p piece for the middle circle, so I had the outline for a donut. Cut these out so you have your donut, then cut out loads more - you will need two circles per pom pom. It's quite dull, so do this in front of the telly, or while listening to The Archers omnibus.

Cut a long length of wool. You can add more later if needs be, but after my dodgy first couple of pom poms, I soon found I could quite happily manage two metres or so.

Wind the wool through the centre hole and round, until you have completely wrapped the card. Try and make sure that the ends of your wool start and end on the outer edges of the card. If you're not sure if it's thick enough, cut off some more wool,  make sure the end is at the outer edge, and wind round as before.

When you've thoroughly wrapped your rings, take your scissors and gently snip around the outside of the wool until you've freed it all up, you've got plenty of spikes, and the scissors can fit between your two pieces of card. Then wind a length of wool between the rings, around your pom poms, and tie to secure it. Snip your pieces of card and remove them, then stare lovingly at your pom pom. Unless it's your first one, which will probably be a bit crap.

Nothing says friendly dinosaur minion like soft spines

Then sew them on to something! I sewed them on to the back of my Yoshi fancy dress costume to act as spines - I can just about get away with the gap between the top and second as I needed room for my shell, but I've got nothing to explain the bottom three.

Even if you don't have anything in mind, making pom poms is really lovely and relaxing. Enjoy!