Making yarn Pom Poms are SUPER easy with the right tools, like all these pom pom makers . But what about when you want a REALLY big yarn ball? Even the extra large maker isn’t big enough for me! SO with a little cardboard you can create your own!
I used a cardboard box, then found something round I wanted to base the size on. I used a DVD to trace an extra extra large circle! Then I cut out a small notch out of one side, and a hole in the center (the hole in the middle of the DVD helped to center the hole, but I did enlarge it.). Then just start wrapping! You’ll have to hold the ends until you get enough wrapped around to hold it down.
Keep wrapping and wrapping, trying to wrap as evenly as possible. Until the center hole is FULL. Then cut the outside edge, along the cardboard circle. Pull one side away from the cardboard giving you space to tie more yarn around the center. Because I don’t want this falling apart I doubled the yarn AND tied two strands around.
Then pull off the cardboard circle (it may take a bit of twisting to get it off). Finally trim the pom pom to be a nice circle (it tends to be a little oval at first). I left the long strands from tying it to attach to the end of a long baby hat, but if you just want a pom pom you can trim those too!
Lena Schwungfeld
Hi Ashlee!
First of all I looooove your patterns! They are awesome! Do you also have a pattern for the hat that the giant pom pom is attached to on the picture? I would love to make that hat! It’s so adorable. Normally I speak german so it’s very hard for me to understand the patterns and I’m not to good at croching anyway. So I hope you have a pattern like the others on your homepage.
Thank you for these great patterns!
Best wishes, merry Christmas and happy new year!
Lena
Ashlee
it actually was another bloggers pattern that I used, but she took it down so I don’t have one to share right now.
Bambi
THANK YOU FOR SHARING THIS!!! I just bought a generic pom pom maker and I think I made big mistake by buying it. I LOVE your way AND your clear instructions!
Mirrigan
ummmmmmmmmmmmm I make pom pom 4 times this size and they turn out really well it all depends on the wool and how much you wrap around the cardboard. I make animals etc out of them.
Ashlee
yup! I love making big ones – I’ve even done a cardboard circle the size of a plate – but DANG it used a lot of yarn!
Kim
I made this with two circles (cereal-box-weight-cardboard) in order to tie the string in the center of the two circles to tie it off at the very end (after cutting). It came out fine after trimming, but mine looked like a croissant at the very end of wrapping, with loops falling off. How did you keep your end loops from slipping off (where the cut in your circle is located). Thanks for the advice. Hosting a sleepover with 9 year olds, and hoping to make these tonite.
Ashlee
wrapping evenly is key, also not cutting the opening to far apart – also – I didn’t do this but would help – instead of cutting perfect circles you could have it widen a bit at each end to help hold the yarn in?
Alice
So gorgeous. I have to try this out, love love love it
Rose wood
Brilliant!