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By Recycled Crafts Contributor, Anitra from the blog “Coffee Pot People”.

Aren’t pom poms fun? I like the old-fashioned kind myself, the kind where you can actually see the strands of yarn that were used. There’s freedom in making your own, too, because you can use up yarn scraps, and also get any color you want.

They’re kind of a pain to make, though, if you need a lot of them, right? That’s what I thought, but if you have a rake, you can make a whole bunch at a time!

Here’s how, and what you’ll need:

• A rake–this broken decorative one I found at Mama’s worked well

• Yarn

• Scissors

A note on the rake: I think you could use one of those heavy metal garden rakes, too; just make sure the tines are smooth and clean. Also, if you have woodworking skills and tools, it would be a simple thing to drill holes in a board and drop in dowels, and have a “real” tool.

The first thing you’ll do is cut pieces of yarn about 12″ (30.5 cm) long, one for each pom pom you’ll be making. Lay one between each peg on your rake. (For larger pom poms, skip a peg, or even two.)

Now take the yarn you’re using for the pom poms and wind it around all the pegs at once. (I didn’t use all the pegs on the rake, so I tied off the end of the yarn on an “extra” peg, to make winding easier.) The more yarn you wind, the denser your pom poms will be, and you’ll need more for larger pom poms. Experiment a bit to see how dense you’ll want yours. The first batch I made came out a little too “airy” for me; this batch seem a little dense than necessary, so I’m aiming for the midpoint next time. If you do end up with pom poms that are just too loose and airy, don’t despair! Just tie two of them tightly together, which is what I did with the large pink one in the first photo.

Also, wind fairly loosely, as your next step will be to tie the knots between pegs, which will tighten the yarn considerably.

When you’ve wound as much as you want, pick up each of the yarn pieces between the pegs, and tie a tight knot at the center point between each pair of pegs. (If you’ve skipped pegs, put the string piece right against a peg before tieing.)

Now cut between each knot, right at the center point. I’ve shown the cut with the yarn still on the rake, but after that cut tried lifting the yarn off the pegs. It worked just as well, and was easier.

Now, if you’re like me, you’ll find that the knots for each pom pom weren’t as tight as they really need to be. That’s why I had you cut your yarn ties so long. Now, if you need, you can tie a tighter knot–just wrap the free ends to the opposite side and tie again. If you aren’t going to put the pom poms on clothing or use as a toy, you could actually use a length of wire, and twist the ends until you got a really, really tight center.

Your first and last pom poms will be lopsided. Just trim the ends to round them off. You’ll probably need to do just a little trimming on the others, too.

As an alternative, you can turn your end pompoms into flowers, by keeping the long side long, and just tidying it up to form a nice circle:

Now, then. Are you wondering what to do with masses and miriads of easily-made pompoms? Watch this space for more!