What can you do with a ball of yarn? Lots of things, but here are some fun crafts that you do not need much more than a ball of yarn to make. Both of these crafts were handwork Hazel would have done if she remained in the Waldorf school, but since she is no longer attending there, I got to do them with her. The handwork was one of the things I loved about the Waldorf school. Hazel and I started with two Pompom kits. The first is Make Pompom Animals.
Hazel saw it and wanted to give it a try. She started with the hedgehog.
And she made a multicolored bird.
She got sick of wrapping so her pompoms are not as full. She also decided hers was sitting and did not put legs on. While she was making hers I tried a few more. I made the ladybug.
Our second kit is Make Pompom Fun Shapes. It also came with six balls of yarn, two different sized pompom makers which were the same size as the ones in the other kit and a book. Both books had the same introduction projects.
I loved the apples in this book and made one with a bite out of it and a core.
I also tried the cheeseburger. It still needs some trimming, but it is pretty neat.
This kit also has instructions for a simple striped ball, snowman, and Matryoshka doll, but we haven't tried those yet. The kits were fun. My two complaints were that I think the instructions used larger pompom makers and had something to hold them with which would make it easier. I found I could not wrap nearly all the layers the instructions said on several of them. I also found the colors did not necessarily match the colors in the instructions and we ran out of some like red but had lots of others. We started using our own yarn after awhile. Overall we enjoyed them and Hazel learned how to make a pompom.
We also explored finger knitting with Finger Knitting Fun by Vickie Howell. I had done finger knitting as a child, but honestly did not remember how to do it. I made Hazel a simple necklace one night and left it for her to find the next day. She immediately wanted to try herself.
More simple necklaces,
Some belts,
(Hazel is going to wear one with her Esther costume),
I made her a headband as well,
and a fancy necklace (though it still needs the closure on it).
Then I felted them by hand in warm, soapy water. The book adds beads and/or buttons but we have not done that yet.
Hazel has been loving finger knitting although she has not had much time to do it since school has started. We plan to make another headband out of brown and glue on some small birds for a bird nest. Then we are going to look at the next book from Quarto Books, Creative Kids Complete Photo Guide to Knitting by Mary Scott Huff and give Hazel some knitting lessons (and I'll probably learn more than the basics to knitting). Stay tuned!!
