DIY Pom-Pom Christmas Ornaments

I'm going to credit Sadie with the inspiration for this post. Having left most of my Christmas stuff back in Australia, I was wondering how I was going to start from scratch again and decorate a Christmas tree without buying even more decorations that would eventually end up being thrown out when we go back home in two years. When I read Sadie's post about how to make your own pom-poms, I realised that this was the answer! Easy, cheap, home-made decorations that won't break if you cram them in a bag. They're a very ethical solution if you've got leftover wool, too. As I've just arrived here I don't have any leftover anything, so I went out and got some white yarn.

I used the method described by Sadie to make the bigger pompoms (hers are much better than mine, yours will look better too if you have more patience than me and use a lot of yarn!). For the small pompoms, I have my own method...

I didn't take any pictures because I was doing them in front of the TV at night, so I drew some pictures for you. You'll need an ordinary kitchen fork, and some yarn.

1. Wrap your yarn around a fork. Mmmm, looks like spaghetti... don't eat it. Keep wrapping until its nice and fat, or until you get sick of it.
2. Cut a piece of yarn around 15cm long and wrap it around the middle of your little wad of yarn. As you start to tie your knot, pull the yarn off the fork.
3. Once the yarn is off the fork you can really tighten that knot. At this point it'll start to look less like spaghetti and more like bowtie pasta (or farfalle, if you're fancy).
4. Use a sharp pair of scissors to cut open all the little loops you've created. Fluff it open and you've got a teeny tiny pom-pom!

Go through your kitchen drawers to find different sized forks to use. I used a salad server to make medium-sized pom-poms!

I attached them to the tree with those little plastic loops used to attach price tags to clothes. You can get them anywhere they sell office supplies (or just use more yarn).

They look cute on the Christmas tree, don't they? Like cute little snowballs.

I got this ampelmann (traffic light man) decoration in Berlin and I love it!

This little owl is actually a bookmark that James' mum gave me but he looks happy being a Christmas decoration at the moment!