Saturday, June 23, 2012

How to Make Yarn Pom Poms ~ fun for all ages!

an example of cutting your pom pom! 


All you need is card board (I use a cereal box!), scissors , and yarn of any kind!!

Children and adult of all ages can do this project. For younger children have an adult do the cutting!

Pom poms are used in many ways for many fun project and are not just for crocheters and Knitters! I will have a post coming up on how to make Monster friends and Princess friends out of them. They are also fun to make and toss up and down! They are so light there isn't a need to worry about breaking things! Add them to shoes, flip flops, hair clips for a fun way to accessorize!

I traced a glass to get the circle, Using a favorite cereal box can get less than eager children excited about crafts or make it more fun for ones that already love to craft! 

There will be shrinkage so you will want to cut out the circle bigger than what you want your Pom pom to be.

Cut out 2 circles
They don't have to be perfect so feel free to let most 4 year olds and up ( with supervision) try to cut a circle out
next drawl a smaller circle ( again doesn't have to be perfect) and a v like shape

cut out both circles like this and you are ready to start!
Now you are done with your homemade pom pom maker!!! You can also purchase these at many crafts stores, But I think they are fun and easy to make!! However if you need to make alot of these before hand and want to save time there is less trimming involved with a store bought pom pom maker!

Now grab your yarn! Feel free to hold two or more stands of yarn at once when you wrap for a cool effect. I will show you with one multi color strand.

Place a small strand of yarn inside the two circles like this

tip* tape the outside perimeter of your circle if small children have trouble.

Now hold the two cardboard pieces together so the yarn doesn't slip out. Take the yarn from your ball or skein and begin to wrap your circles.  I always start in the middle work my away to each side and back again so every spot was wrapped at least 2 twice. For a fuller one wrap 4 or 5 times.

Start wrapping
this is wrapped 4 times


Next we will cut the yarn placing the scissors between the two cardboard pieces like the pictures below


Now you need to tie a knot tightly with your two strings and remove the pom from the cardboard

trim to a nice round shape if desire or you can brush it with a fine tooth comb for a fuzzy look!!!



I made a fun ring out of mine! What will you do? Comment below!

Chiq Flirty Scarf ~ Great for teens and preteens

This looks WAY harder than it is!! If girl scounts and Great Grandmas can do it so can you!!!

This is a great and easy fun project for people of all ages! I teach this class at a local craft store and teens seem to LOVE LOVE IT They can create lovely scarfs for about 3.50 a piece and don't need any prior Crochet or fiber knowledge ( neither does mom or dad!!) I have had people aged 8 to over 80 take this class and get it! Most finish or are close to finishing in about 2.5 hours! i made them in about 30 minutes now. They also can be a money maker! I sell them for 20.00  and also have them to wear and enjoy!!!


There are many versions to this scarf but I will give you the simple one to start with feel free to change and create!
 First all you need is 1 ball ( will be enough to make 2 scarfs) of Starbella yarn This can be found at michaels, joanns and other places yarn is sold! You can also sometimes find them pretty cheap on ebay. At michaels the yarn is 6 dollars full price ( don't forget your coupons, they have an app for smart phones too!) so even if you don't use a coupon thats only 3 dollars for the yarn per scarf

You also need a crochet hook. Normally size matters but for this project anything from a size G to a size J is fine! Walmart also has crochet hooks for like $1.00
** If this is your first time crocheting no need to buy a fancy hook the cheap ones work just as well for this project **

Okay so I have a video that is brought to you by the lovely people at All Free Crochet!



First you need to spread out the yarn and look at the netting. The part that is thick is the bottom or the edging, it is what ruffles.
The thinner side with the spaced out netting is the top and what we will be crocheting into.


See how the bottom part is thick? That is what will ruffle up and look lovely even if your stitches are less than stellar!!!
What we are doing is a chain, take turns between chaining in every hole and skips one or two holes.


Okay so you w=may not know what a chain is, if you can't watch the video I will do my best to describe! What you do for this project is insert your hook along the top like the picture. Then you need to stitck it into the hole next to it. You want to then pull the first loop off your hook then repeat.  

Defination of a chain stitch
This is an example of a chain with normal yarn


 - the most basic of all crochet stitches made by pulling a loop of yarn through another loop
crochet stitch- any one of a number of stitches made by pulling a loop of yarn through another loop with a crochet Hook


Okay so to do our scarf all you need to do is chain skipping 1 to 3 holes until you have the length you want!!! do 2 stands like this and twirl them together and you have this fun scarf!!
Here is a finished one

here is an example of what it looks like to start!



Have any questions? Comment below or email me at CrochetChiq@gmail.com

DO you like crocheting? Check out my first blog all about crochet www.crochetchiq.blogspot.com