January – To make
(but posted in February)
Pom Poms!
Lets make a kitty cat.
Pompom animals are fun and easy to make. You can make your own poms or purchase them from the store. To make your own you will need yarn, a big eye needle, and a pompom maker. Pompom makers can be purchased or you can use cardboard to create them. There are many other ways to make pompoms. A quick search online will come up with quite a few ways to create. I prefer the way I learned as a kid, back in the prehistoric days. That is using paper board circles I create. Paper board is stiff paper like a cereal box is made from. Any stiff paper or cardboard will do, but the thinner the cardboard the tighter the pompom. There is no need to buy pompom makers and the method of wrapping around my fingers or cardboard, while working well, especially for my crochet, doesn’t give me the control of sizes I really want. I am going to show you how to make a pompom kitty cat using pompoms I created using paperboard. Paper board is that thin flexible material they use to make boxes for your food, like cereal, crackers, etc. It is much funnier to learn to make your own pompoms than buying them. What better way to repurpose that cereal box.
There is a video tutorial at end of the instructions!
You will need.
*Paperboard
*Something to draw a circle in 3 different sizes on the cardboard. ( a jar lid, the bottom of a glass, etc). You will need one (1) large, one (1) medium, and two (2) small pom poms.
*Yarn in kitty cat colors. I prefer a medium-weight yarn (Size 4).
*Pipe cleaner for the tail
*Pen or pencil to draw circles
*Scissors to cut out circles and cut yarn
*Large eye needle
*Felt in kitty color for ears and for the nose
*Googly Eyes
*Glue
Lets make pompom template
Using your paperboard and pen or pencil(and whatever you are using for your circle) draw two circles for every pompom you are making. For the large pompom, you will draw two large circles. For the medium pompom, you will draw two circles. For the two small pompoms, you will draw four circles.
Inside of every circle, draw another. This will be what you put your needle with yarn through. A large circle inside means a tighter pompom with more yarn. It takes a while to finish one. A tiny hole means a very loose pompom with very little yarn. I recommend a medium hole for each.
Now with your scissors, cut out the circles and then cut out the inside circle you made, leaving a ring.
Thread your needle with the yarn. The longer the yarn length the less you have to rethread it. Once threaded take one end and match to the other end of the yarn. Tie a knot.
Using two circles of the same size, put them together.
Drop or push the needle through the middle holes, then through the knotted end of the yarn. This secures the yarn to the ring. Continue to wrap yarn around the ring until the ring is completely covered and you can longer see through the middle hole.
Secure your yarn by running it under the previous loops and cut.
Moving the yarn aside to get back down to the paperboard, spread the two halves of the ring enough to get a pair of scissors into it
Keeping the scissors between the two halves of the paperboard, cut the yarn all the way around.
Cut a length of yarn long enough to go around the middle of the board, wrap the yarn between the two pieces of the paperboard. Tie the yarn tightly, securing the pompom. DO NOT CUT the Yarn.
Tear off the paperboard leaving a pom pom.
Repeat for the other three pompoms
Putting Kitty together
ONCE you have all four pompoms, it’s time to make the kitty. The large pompom is its body. The medium one is kitties’ heads and the little ones are its front feet. Using the yarn ends, tie the head to the body.
Now using half of the yarn ends, tie one foot to the body. Repeat for other foot. Trim.
Using pipe cleaner glue tail to the kitty.
Using the felt cut two triangles for ears and glue to the top of the head
Cut a small triangle from felt for nose and glue to the front of kitty’s face.
Glue google eyes on the face.
Tadaa! You have a kitty!
I would love to see pictures of your creation! Please comment with your picture or if you have questions or just want to say hi.
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