If you're a self respecting woman of the millennium, you'll have a stag hanging around the house. If you haven't, and you don't have a figural alternative (owl, pineapple, flamingo etc), there's still plenty of time to go out and become one of us.
One of us. One of us.
I've never been one to go in for the traditional Christmas decorations. Something about a jolly bearded fat man and flowy dressed angels doesn't really do it for me.
Using a stag is still Christmasey, but totally on trend too. (I did toy with putting a little red pom pom on the end of my stags nose, but I'm scarred enough from playing Rudolph in three school plays... that's a story for my therapist and not for the internet though.
Let's get down to how to make a pom pom. There are plenty of ways to make one. I remember using two circular pieces of cardboard in primary school and thinking it took ages. So when I decided to make these pom pom decorations, I went searching for a pom pom loom.
Mistake. Here's an explanation why in picture form:
So I found a tutorial with a fork and got all dad-jokey in my title. I made a forking pom pom.
Fork, wool, scissors.
For an individual pom, 15. If you have mad skills like me, 5.
Under $10.
Here's where my tutorial differs from the ones I looked at on the internet. String a piece of wool through the middle of your fork to make the tie in the middle. Most tutorials do that afterwards. This makes it much easier when it comes to tying off your pom and keeping the tension in the main body.
Tip: Don't stinge on the length, you'll be using this part afterwards to hang the pom pom.
Loop the wool through the fork tines. I don't know if this helps much, but it seems to give me a bit of extra purchase when I'm starting to wind.
Winding time! Wind the wool around the fork. The more you wind on, the more packed your pom will be. You'll just have to eyeball it though. Cut the end of the wool off once finished. Doesn't it look like a little hippie in a wool cap?
This is the fiddliest part. Take your cut piece of wool and tie a knot, pulling it as tight as you can. Keep a hold of the knot and slide the wound part off carefully. Quickly pull the original knot tighter and tie it off again.
Cut through the loops of the knot, and you've got a pom pom! Give it a little trim to make it circular, then take the thread from the knotted section (this will be longer than the rest) and tie a double knot in it to make the loop for hanging.
If you think the pom is a little small, don't go out and look for a gigantic fork. All you really need to make a pom pom in this method is two cylindrical objects that you can tie a piece of wool through, like toilet rolls, plastic pipe or some larger permanent markers.
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