Sometimes you just need a craft that you’re pretty sure you’re not going to fuck up. I mean, I am all about trying things outside your comfort zone and failing miserably, but just for a change, sometimes it’s nice to actually be able to do something. That’s why I was sort of looking forward to trying out these cute pom pom bookmarks.
Image from DesignMom.com
Bonus? All you need is yarn and scissors.
The hardest part is being able to reach your drink while you’re wrapping yarn around your fingers.
Yeah, I drink and craft. What? You wanna start something? (Incidentally, not only was I drinking and crafting, but I was also watching TV. Multi-tasking, bitches.)
This took surprisingly little time to complete:
And then it was time to follow directions and wrap a shorter piece of yarn around my wrapped pieces. Except I wrapped my longer piece of yarn around it because I am an idiot and failed at blog reading comprehension while also drinking and watching TV. Oops.
Also, I think I may have not tied the knot tight enough.
And instead of just cutting a longer piece of yarn to replace the one I mistakenly used for this step, I just used the shorter piece to be the “tail” of the bookmark. It’ll work for a mass market paperback…
Now here’s the fun part: Cut all the loops, et voila: You have a pom pom!
A messy pom pom, yes, and one where you can totally see the ridge where I tied the knot around my loops (which is why I think I may not have tied it tight enough), but a pom pom nonetheless.
Of course, the pom pom looks a little sad and needs a haircut, but that part is totally fun. It was really therapeutic, actually. Also, the pom pom got fuller-looking as I shortened it. (Balding people, take note: This works on heads as well. If you have a little less hair than you used to, cut it short. It’ll look fuller. I’m looking at you, combover ponytail dude.)
I almost cut off the tail by accident several times, so uh, don’t do that.
Also, this was messy. I had the forethought to put my sweatshirt in my lap to catch all the schnipples (that’s what my grandma calls all the little pieces that come off when you’re trimming something– Is that a thing, or is my grandma just weird?), but not the forethought to realize that yarn schnipples totally stick to fleece.
The finished product is way less horrible than it could have been. Like, it actually resembles what it is supposed to look like. I’m still not sure I’d give these as gifts, but they’re totally fun and not hard– just my speed.
Would you like to own this beautiful piece of craft? Oh, you can. Sign up for the weekly newsletter and you can enter the monthly drawing for a chance to win!
29 Comments
Your grandma is rad and Imma harvest schnipples for my own.
That is the CUTEST! I’m thinking about starting a daisy troop for my daughter and this would be a PERFECT craft 🙂
Clearly, you do not have cats. I see 3 things with this pintest: 1) potential choking hazard for my cat who chews on all things made of yarn; 2) potential puking hazard for said cat who will eat all the schniblets like skittles (is that the word you used? I can’t remember now and I’m too lazy to scroll up and see); and 3) potential cat toy for said cat who will inevitably bat it underneath a heavy piece of furniture, thereby forcing me to find a tool with which to retrieve it. Ah, felines.
you didn’t explain about how to add in different colors. I know more about how to drink than make the pompom.
Step 1: Buy the kind of yarn that has lots of colors in it already. Step 2: That’s it.
It was variegated yarn? As in, multi-colored yarn.
Thanks so much, Shannon. I know what variegated yarn is, not sure I’ve ever seen it with that many colors before so thot it was the ends of many balls of yarn. It is a wonderful idea, I confuse easily so I had to ask.
everyday starts out new,
Meg Clare
we used to make them by winding the yarn around a dinner fork…try that one while drinking!
When it comes to balls and drinking, we would expect nothing less from you than complete success! P.S. Schnipples, awesome word!
Is your grandma of German/Dutch descend? Because “Schnippel” is still used here, it means snippet(s).
Btw, I would totally love the pompom bookmark you made.
thanks for your considerate reply, I get it now, I confuse easily so had to ask.
Am I weird for REALLY wanting to get this one? I’m totes subbing to the monthly newsletter!
Schnipples and schnapps? So, I made about 5 million of these guys in middle school after learning how in Girl Scouts. I made small poofs, medium poofs, large poofs and a holy-carp-what-was-I-thinking mega poof (using this method: http://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Pom-Pom). Then I realized how some of the larger ones reminded me of those completely horrid things from the movie “Critters” and I stopped making them forever. I haven’t crafted with yarn since.
I would totally make this if I had a use for it. Alas… I rarely ever have reaaaaaaal books. Just my tablet… so.
Is this the same grandma that calls unpopped popcorn old maids? She sounds pretty friggin cool.
You get what that is, right? Unpopped…unmarried.
One and the same. And she is rad.
She’s my grandma too, and I just spent 15 minutes trying to Google the spelling of “doppes (sp?),” which is what she calls a clumsy person, usually herself. (Say DOP-us.) She is indeed rad, and it is hereditary. The radness has come through to the Pintester, obviously. And my own daughter has been blessed to be the next in what I can only assume is a long line of doppeses.
Well, as I’m German I can tell you a secret “schnippeln” is a regional accent (from the North to be exact) for cutting. So if there is any German ancestry in your family, this is not weird at all.
So…am I the only one that is amazed…and also kinda sad..that there is not ONE comment about holding fuzzy balls in your hands? I mean, c’mon! It’s so easy! Or wait. Was it *too* easy? Or am I the only perv?
My schnipples always get all over the place.
I would love to see you try these! http://www.pinterest.com/pin/286541595015147096/
Just a little hint on pom pom making.. instead of tying up one hand by wrapping yarn around your fingers (you might want to eat chips with that hand while you drink with the other).. you can cut a piece of cardboard to to size and wrap the yarn around that instead.
It also looks like this would work better if you had something more substantial to slip between the pages than a piece of yarn.
You can also use forks. But I didn’t know that until after we’d spent two long nights making ours with our hands.
My German grandma uses the word “schnipple” to describe the end of the sausage where it is clamped or tied off. She tells the butcher to “snip the schnipple off before you wrap it, please!” She doesn’t pay for schnipples because you can eat them.
That’s positively loaded with bad sausage jokes…
[…] Pom pom bookmarks are fun, but, as I’ve been rightly accused of, I do not have a cat. […]
I made a crap-ton of these for my wedding. We turned them into little flowers and my soon-to-be husband made little white picket fences to put them in. There were two like the one in the picture I attached. They were supposed to tell people where to sit. But it was windy. And my useless – utterly useless and a waste of money – day-of planner decided to not put out the fragile, spent-hours-on papercraft people I had made. So people picked up strange pom-pom flowers that had their name on one side and “Darth Vader” on the other and were like “wtf? Are you on drugs?” And then – AND THEN – someone threw a bunch of other decorations on top of the papercrafts after the wedding, thereby crushing all of them. HOURS of my life went into this. I may be a bit bitter, even three years later…
[…] I’m sure they’re particularly proud of my post entirely of penises. (My grandma rules, as you know, but boob jokes are more her speed. I will endeavor to incorporate more boob jokes in the […]
[…] 3. That’s a hairy ball: […]