My new favorite craft of 2017 is the mighty pompom.

Behold, you may ask yourself how something small and fluffy could be your new favorite thing EVER but trust me, once you start making these you will be hooked forever. And good news: they are REALLY easy to make. String a bunch to make a garland, string up a single on a keychain and you’ll have the coolest looking keys around, stack a bunch in a clear apothocary jar and you’ve got a great centerpiece.

Pompoms like the ones pictured above are easy peasy to make. I start with a block of wood with two nails set into pre-drilled holes. You will want to be able to take the nails in and out so please do not hammer the nails into the wood! Then, you wrap your yarn around the nails until you’ve got a nice fat puff of wooley goodness to work with.

Once you’ve got that fat stack of wrapped yarn, cut a length from your yarn (maybe 12″) and double it up. Use this doubled up length to tie through the middle of your stack. Once it is tied tight pull your stack off of the two nails. Cut through the loops and BOOM! You’ve got a pompom!

If you don’t have access to a block with nails, you can wrap the yarn around your fingers. Here is an excellent tutorial for just that.

The fun part of this project is trimming the pompoms. Think of it as a crafty haircut?! I also suggest using thicker wool to make a thicker, fluffier pompom. Finally, I usually wrap two kinds of yarn around the block to give variety to the pompom. I like mine to be really colorful, but if you are looking for a solid color or a neutral just stick with one skein color.

Fun, right? Well, go grab some wool and get cracking!