Making Pom Poms

There are many ways of making pom poms. There are even tools in the market that you can buy. The ones that force you to thread the yarn through a hole should go out the door right now. That’s just crazy, taking the time to thread and wrap yarn through a hole over and over again a thousand times. Ugh. There are so many much easier methods of making a pom pom and the result is the same.

You can just wrap the yarn around your open hand 80-100 times. Ten times easier than threading through a hole. When we were kids we cut rectangles of cardboard, threaded a length of yarn through the middle and wrapped and wrapped around the cardboard. How big the rectangle is depends on how big a pom pom you want.

My favorite method is to cut 2 Cs out of cardboard. Yep, a C. String a length of yarn through the two pieces of cardboard for tying finished pom pom, then wrap and wrap. It’s the same as the crazy tool on the market that forces you to thread through the hole but you don’t have to thread through a hole because we cut a notch out of the hole, which means just wrap.

Wrap 70-100 times. Depends on yarn thickness and size of cardboard C. How big the two Cs are depends on how big a pom pom you want. You can always give it a haircut after it’s done. Well, it will need a trim for sure but sometimes it gets quite the haircut.

After you’ve wrapped enough yarn then tug length of yarn between two Cs towards inside C and snug it up nice and tight then tie off. Now insert scissors between two Cs on wider outside edge and cut and cut and cut. It’ll take some repeat snipping to get all the strands cut. Pull away cardboard Cs and give the pom pom a shake then a trim.

The pom pom above was made with the hand method. It's definitely going to remain in my arsenal of how to make pom poms. For big, chunky pom poms there isn't anything easier. The main drawback is that there's only one size and it's tough to define the specific size. Sure, you could give it a whopper of a haircut but that's not really the best route. That's where the C template comes in. The C template allows defined sizes.

To make the C template, cut 2 circles of the same size. For instance, 2 1" circles or 2 2" circles. Cut into the circles and cut a circle out of the centers. This gap where you cut into the circle to get to inside will be where you wrap the yarn. Save yourself a few hours of frustration and toss away any templates you have that require threading yarn through a hole.