Last Minute Valentines

We're battening down the hatches here in North Wales as the storm rages outside.  No one wants to venture out unless absolutely unavoidable!  Happily I'm in no danger of floods, but if you can't get to the shops to buy a Valentine's rose for your special other you might be able to make one of my pom pom roses (or even a bunch) instead - yes, pom pom mania is still going strong in my house!

Hopefully you'll have everything you need at hand or something very similar.  I used a Clover pom pom maker and dark red acrylic yarn for my pom pom - you can use the old cardboard ring method  (video here) or even just your hands and a scissors - here's a great video showing you how.  You can even make them in bulk - Flax & Twine show how here - I haven't tried it but this method looks like fun!

Once you have your pom pom find a wooden kebab stick (really cheap in the supermarket) or a twig from the garden and push the pointy end through the centre of  the pom pom.  I cut the sharp point off the kebab stick once it was through.  I used a hot glue gun to put a blob on the end of the stick and pushed the yarn strands into it to attach.  I threaded on stamped office tags and tied green raffia under the pom pom to represent leaves.  You could use felt or even just green card to make leaves and hand write a message instead.

Well the electricity has just gone off so I'll finish and find some candles now before the laptop battery dies.  Hope you are safe where you are and keep warm!

St Dwynwen's Day

Here in Wales we have our own day for lovers and love on 25th January - this Saturday.  You can read about Dwynwen here.  To celebrate I made these little felt brooches (yes, pompoms again!) and cut and stamped celtic tags to present them on. 

I've some Rowan Kidsilk yarns in my stash - leftovers from Christmas gifts I knitted for the family a few years ago.  Its a very expensive yarn but these tiny pompoms use such tiny amounts you could make many many brooches (or just pompoms) from one ball.  The Celtic circle die is from Tonic Studios and there's a square too.  So pretty - but if you're not of a Celtic race there are other lovely designs such as flowers, stars, butterflies and vines. 

This is a Celtic cross erected in 1903 on Ynys Llanddwyn in memory of Dwynwen.  I've never visited but it could be one of our expeditions this summer as its not far away.  It looks a beautiful  spot.  Anyway, back to the brooches - Welsh language stamps are not common, even in Wales, so I used an alphabet set to stamp the words round the tags.  Cariad is our word for sweetheart or dear and I remember my Nain (grandmother) used it all the time when speaking to us as children. 

Happy St Dwynwen's Day to you all.

That Pom Pom Thing!

Once that Christmas thing was over a sudden urge to make pompoms came over me - don't ask me why!  But you can't just carry on making pompoms and doing nothing with them so of course I clicked over to Pinterest for some inspiration. I found Bar's star pompoms - so cute - and thought I'd try hearts instead.

Bar has a great photo tutorial but they are very easy.  I used a nice big biscuit cutter and the small pink Clover pompom maker which made these so quick to put together I'd finished five or six in no time.  The pipecleaners are those long craft ones which reached all round the heart cutter but you could twist two ordinary short ones together to make the length.

I also made some big single pompoms with the large blue Clover pompom maker.  I hung them in the twisted willow branches I used as a Christmas tree this year to cheer me up during this dismally dark time of year.  Haven't finished with pompoms yet so watch this space!