handmade holiday | yarn ball ornaments

More balls! Glitter balls, sequin balls, wood balls, and now yarn balls, which were my favorite ornaments from last year. They were easy to make and added a lot of color to my tree. I became a little obsessed with making every possible color combination and spent all my TV watching time last December making MORE YARN BALLS.



I initially tried making these with thick wool yarn (as inspired by these), but didn't like the lumpy look that resulted. I ultimately found some thin smooth cotton yarn that worked perfectly for creating a more modern look. Acrylic/synthetic yarn will not work for this project (acrylic won't stick to the glue), so make sure you use a natural yarn.



Materials | styrofoam balls, cotton yarn, glue, hemp twine
Equipment | scissors, pins

Instructions:
1. Cut a length of twine and knot at the end to make a hanging loop.
2. Glue the knot to the styrofoam ball. Splay out the tails of the twine and make sure they are glued flat to the ball, too. Stick a few straight pins through the knot and tails to secure to the ball and allow the glue to dry. Remove pins.
3. Apply glue to the top of the ball and start wrapping the yarn in a spiral around the hanging loop knot.  To make the striped balls, wrap two colors of yarn simultaneously.
4. Keep gluing and wrapping and patting the yarn into place until the whole ball is covered.

I had no problems getting the cotton yarn to stick to the glue, but if you have any areas where the yarn is coming off the ball, just stick a straight pin through the yarn to secure until the glue is dry.