First off I like to thank my mean and bitter grade 4 teacher of the far past for this wonderfully sweet way of making your very own pompoms.

You will for this some nice sharp nail scissors, (optional an Exacto knife), some scrap cardboard like you find from shoe boxes or scrap bristle board, a ruler or measuring tape, a cross-stitch size 18 needle (recommended) and of course your choice of various colours and textures of yarn, what ever you have lying around.

A word of caution, only for older children and not so clumsy adults should be working with sharp scissors and knives. ;)
Young children below 10 should ask their parents or guardians to cut and do the more complicated threading.

Oh yeah I like to apologize for the quality of some of the pics. Will get a better camera in the future.

Update; Corrected the size of the needles. I got confused with the amount which was about 6 to a pack to the size which is about 18. Sorry about that. ;)

Step 1: Template

Make a doughnut shape template out of cardboard or bristle. The outer circle should measure 11/2 inch and the inner circle should measure about 2/3 inch.

Step 2: Trace Them.

Using your template, trace two doughnuts and cut them out.

Step 3: Start Threading.

First place the doughnuts on top of each other and thread your needle with your choice of yarn and start winding the yarn on to the doughnuts as shown in the pic.

Wind the yarn around the doughnut till you can’t push the needle though the middle any more.

Step 4: Cutting.

Start to cut the edge of the yarned doughnuts. Careful not to cut the cardboard part of the doughnuts. Also remember don’t cut all the way to the middle of the yarns.

Step 5: Tie It.

Once the edges are all cut, take a left over yarn piece and tie the middle part that is between the cardboard doughnuts making sure you have a nice knot. Snip the cardboard doughnuts off.

Step 6: Trim and Tidy Up

Fluff up your new Pompoms and trim stray yarns.

Note: Cut the long string if your going to use it as a cat toy, keep the string if its going to be for clothingapplications est.

Step 7: Tips

The Pompom’s standard size is ideal for cat toys. My cats loved them. You can try other sizes but I find this size is ideal. Small Pompoms are great with small yarns like baby soft ones. Large yarns are great with large Pompoms. Try to do a combination of large and small and see what happens.

To make the doughnut template you can use a compass for perfect circles but I just like to use a fish food container for the outer circle and the inner I use the one of the opening for fingers of my nail scissors.

Enjoy and have fun. :)