Pom-Pom Tutorial, and a Winner!

While this may be Simple Simon to some, I had to have a lesson to make the pom-poms for the legwarmers. My sister Alice, who was a true child of the 80's, assured me that I didn't need to buy a special pom-pom maker like the tutorials I found said I did. So... here's the simple, no special tools required, pom-pom tutorial!

First of all, cut a piece of yarn about 8 inches long and place it between your first two fingers (this is easier than trying to shove it through your fingers when they are wrapped up).  Then wrap yarn around the tips of those two fingers. 

I wrapped it around 100 times.

Then take the 8 inch piece of yarn, bring it around the entire bundle of yarn and tie a really tight knot.

You want this to be really, really tight. It helps to have someone put their little finger on it while you tie.  I couldn't take a picture of that, while tying the knot.  Sorry.

Then, after you tie the first knot, wrap it around to the other side and tie another. And then wrap it around again, if you want. This way you know it's really secure.
Then take scissors and cut the loops all the way around.

You'll end up with a super messy looking ball like this.

Then, using the scissors trim your pom-pom until it is nice and round. You basically want to trim all the strands until they are the same length, the length of the shortest ones. This gets messy, so I did it over a plastic bag so I could pick it up and throw it away.

Once it's all trimmed, you will have a darling little pom-pom to use as you wish.  Eli wants to add googly eyes to these and make monsters.  If monsters aren't your thing, thread some yarn through the centre of the pom-pom using a tapestry needle, and then you can sew them to whatever you like! 

There you go.  I really do love these things. I'm making a hat right now that I'm going to add some to.  They'll be cute as well!

Anyway, on to this weeks giveaway winner. Picked again at random, this time by Eli, the winner of the Christmas tags (which, by the way, my sister-in-law Renee said would also be great to use as decorations with current pictures of children - just change them up every year) is.... Shannon Evans... again!  I swear, it isn't rigged.  There were 19 comments made this week. I wrote the numbers 1-19 on evenly sized pieces of paper and Eli picked the one with number 14 on it.  Shannon happened to be the 14th comment of the week.  So, Shannon wins for the second week in a row!

Don't forget to come back tomorrow for a sponsored giveaway!  You are so excited, I promise!