Who doesn’t like pompoms, right? They look great on hats, scarves, bags, even on blankets and ponchos. They can be used in home decor and as a rainy project for kids.
There is a simple way to make a pompom of almost any size out of any yarn without any special tools. All you need is your hands, yarn and scissors. That’s why they call it a “lazy pompom” 🙂
Get your supplies ready and let’s make a lovely messy lazy pompom!
The pompom I’ll be making in this tutorial will finish off the top down hat I knitted a few weeks ago, so I’ll use the same chunky wool in a golden yellow colour.
1. Wrap the yarn around your thumb leaving a tail about 10cm / 4″ long. Hold the wrap by keeping your thumb close to the bottom of your index finger. Click here to see how to do it in a video tutorial.
Feel free to use any hand. If you are right-handed, you will probably feel more comfortable wrapping the yarn around your left hand, as it is shown in the above photo. Let’s call this hand a “holding hand”.
If you are a left-handed person, use your right hand as your “holding hand”. Generally, whatever feels more comfortable to YOU is great.
2. Wrap the working yarn around the fingers of your “holding hand”.
Here’s a video tutorial that shows how to do this step.
This instruction sounds a bit vague because there are a few variables at play. Let’s see what they are and how they affect the finished look of your pompom.
a) The size of the pompom is determined by the fingers of your “holding hand”. For a tiny pompom wrap the yarn around your index and middle fingers held together.
For a medium-sized pompom wrap the yarn around all four fingers (we don’t count the thumb as it is already busy holding the yarn tail).
For a bigger pompom spread the four fingers of your “holding hand” and wrap the yarn around the wider part (the one that is closer to the fingertips).
b) The fullness of the pompom is determined by the number of wraps you make. Usually, the thinner the yarn you use, the more wraps you will need to make a full pompom.
If you use chunky wool like mine, you should make 40 to 50 wraps around your fingers. To check the fullness of your pompom, carefully ease your hand out of the wraps and squeeze the wraps to see how fluffy they are. If the wraps feel a bit skinny, put them back on your fingers and make a few more wraps.
It doesn’t matter whether you wrap the yarn around your fingers from back to front or from front to back. Any way that feels comfortable for YOU is good.
3. Cut the yarn leaving a 15cm / 6″ tail. Ease your fingers from the wraps (be careful not to make a tangled mess of them).
4. Tie the yarn tails with a loose knot. Wrap the yarn tails around one side of the wraps. Then fold the wraps in half with the wrapped part being approximately at the centre, and wrap both sides of the wraps with the yarn tails. Pull the yarn tails tight and tie them with a square knot. Click here to watch this step in a video.
As a result, you will get a yarn flower like the one shown in the photo below:
5. Now take your scissors and cut the folds on both sides of the yarn flower. That’s our pompom. It’s a bit uneven, so let’s give it a haircut 🙂
If you plan to attach this pompom to a hat or some other item, hold both yarn tails in your hand to keep them safe. Here’s how to do it.
Trim the longer strands of the pompom to shape it. If you feel the pompom turned out to be bigger than you planned, trim all strands to adjust the size.
Here it is, our cute lazy pompom:
NOW LET’S ATTACH IT TO THE HAT:
We’ll need a crochet hook for that. For the chunky yarn I use, an 8mm (L-11) hook will work well. If you use thinner yarn, choose a smaller hook. If you don’t have a hook, you can also use a wool needle.
I’ll give you instructions for both ways to attach a pompom.
1. Find the first round at the very top of the hat.
2. If you use a crochet hook:
Insert the hook from the inside of the hat in a spot that is between the first and the second rounds on one side of the hat. Wrap one pompom tail around the hook and pull it to the wrong side of the hat.
If you use a wool needle:
Thread one pompom tail into the wool needle. Insert the wool needle from the right side of the work in a spot that is between the first and the second rounds on one side of the hat. Pull the tail to the wrong side of the hat.
3. If you use a crochet hook:
Insert the hook from the inside of the hat in a spot that is between the first and the second rounds on the other side of the hat. Wrap the other pompom tail around the hook and pull it to the wrong side of the hat.
If you use a wool needle:
Thread the other pompom tail into the wool needle. Insert the wool needle from the right side of the work in a spot that is between the first and the second rounds on the other side of the hat. Pull the tail to the wrong side of the hat.
4. Turn the hat inside out. Be careful to keep the pompom tails inside the hat. Tie the pompom tails on the wrong side of the hat. Trim the ends leaving tails about 5cm / 2″ long in case you decide to remove the pompom and re-attach it later.
Voila! Here’s how our new pompom looks on the hat:
For more ideas on how to use a pompom, take a look at this board I created on Pinterest. My favourite project in that collection is the pompom bookmark. I plan to make a few of those over the weekend 🙂
If you enjoyed this tutorial,
here’s something else you might find helpful:
“Neat Side Edges” Book
Learn twelve ways to make side edges of a knitted project nice and tidy. Plus, ways to fix side edges, and a way to improve edges of finished projects.
Happy knitting!
