Get your pom poms out

Last night I finished knitting my skull hat - at long last! The most daunting part of my hat was making my mind up on the pattern, but once I finalized it, it took me two nights to finish. And now I'm working on adding the essentials - a pom pom on top, and ropes and tassels for the ear flaps. 

The last time I made a pom pom I think I was about 7 years old. But I quickly remembered how cute they were to make. There are official pom pom making machine/gadgets out there, but when you could have all the necessary ingredients in your recycling bin, why bother? They're so easy to make and I can see myself attaching them to anything that will stand still.

I will post my skull hat. Once the entire ensemble is ... assembled. 

What you'll need: cardboard - leftovers from your recycling bin are perfect, pencil, scissors, varrying size cirular objects to trace, and YARN - not pictured. FAIL.

Step 1: with your circular objects, trace and cut two disk shapes. These can be as large or as small as you'd like. Keep in mind the larger they are, the more yarn you'll need. Step 2: what I've done that's a different from other tutorials is place a piece of yarn {different or the same color. Teal, in this case} around the center. I add this loop at an early stage, in stead of trying to add it once I've cut around the edge (see step 7). Step 3: sandwich this piece of yarn between your two cardboard disks.

Step 4: wind your yarn around the disks. Keep your yarn lengths shortish {7-8 feet at a time} to make it easier to wind. Step 5: a fully wound pom pom. You can add more for a fuller pom pom, but I wouldn't go less than this. Step 6: carefully cut between the two cardboard disks. It looks daunting, but take your time. Keep one hand closed around the yarn, and make sure not to cut your separate piece of yarn. Step 7: tightly tie your separate piece of yarn, and voila! Remove the cardboard disks and rustle up your pom pom. I used the long piece of yarn to then weave it into the top of my hat. It's so cute! I'm already getting about a million ideas for projects ...