How to Make a Wool Ball

Wool balls look like pretty little cotton balls that are usually attached to a beanie. Going to the store to buy a wool ball is easy, but if you make it yourself, you can freely choose the color and yarn material as you like. This craft is both easy, quick, and fun to make. You can attach them to knitted or crocheted hats, make Christmas decorations, or give your dog a toy. Best of all, you have many different ways to make wool balls!

Table of Contents

Use your fingers

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Cut a piece of wool 30 cm long and set aside. ^{[1] X Research Source} You will use this piece of yarn to tie the loops. Your fingers will literally be tied together, so it’s easier to do this first.

Wrap the yarn around your fingers. Take the end of the yarn from the remaining spool of yarn and wrap it around your fingers. If you want to make a medium-sized ball of yarn, wrap it around your index and middle fingers. If you prefer a larger size, you can wear the yarn over your ring finger.

Wrap the wool around the fingers. Do not wrap too tightly so as not to block blood circulation. If you see your fingers turn blue or purple, you are wrapping too tightly. Plus, loops that are wrapped too tightly will have a hard time slipping out of your hand once you’ve wrapped them. The number of loops around your fingers will depend on the size of the ball you want to make: ^{[2] X Research Source}

If using 2 fingers: wrap 100-125 rounds.
If using 3 fingers: wrap 125-150 rounds.

Carefully slide the wrapped bundle from your fingers and place it on top of the short cut just now. Hold the bundle so that the yarns do not come apart. Remember to place the bundle in the center of the short piece of yarn.

Tie the yarn tightly around the bundle. Pull both ends of the yarn toward your body, then tie a tight knot in the center of the bundle. This action is very important. The ball may burst if the knot is not tight. ^{[3] X Research Sources}

Turn the bundle over and tie it into a double knot. Pull both ends of the yarn toward you again and tie the knot. Tie one more time to form a tight double knot.

Trim off the excess end of the yarn, then cut off the loops at both ends of the bundle. Remember to cut off all wool loops; otherwise, your final product will not come out in the correct shape of the sphere.

Whip the wool ball. You can use your fingers to whip or gently roll the ball of wool between your palms. Don’t be afraid to see a few loose strands of wool; This is normal..

Trimming and tidying up the wool ball. At this point, the wool ball is almost done, but it may look a bit jagged. You can correct it by trimming the protruding yarns. Carefully spin the ball around and trim off all the yarns that are longer than the rest. ^{[4] X Research Sources}

Use cardboard

Draw a circle on a piece of cardboard by contouring a cup. This will be the background to make the wool ball. If you want to make the ball really big, you can use a small bowl, even a CD or DVD to draw the circle. ^{[5] X Research Sources}

Draw a smaller circle inside the circle just drawn. This circle has a width of 1.2 to 2.5 cm. The bigger the outer circle, the bigger the inner circle. However, you should avoid drawing the inner circle too big, otherwise the sphere will be very difficult to tie.

Cut the circles with a craft knife. Cut the big circle first, then cut to the small circle. In the end you will have a donut-like shape. If you are young, ask an adult to help you with this step.

Cut a slit about 1 inch wide in the donut shape. The gap will go from the outer circle to the inner circle. This step is to make it easier to wrap the yarn around the circle. ^{[6] X Research Sources}

Draw a border in the shape of the previous donut and cut another shape in the same way. Stitch the two pieces together, remembering to align the gaps of the two shapes to match. You will concatenate these two shapes into one until the last step. ^{[7] X Research Sources}

Start wrapping the yarn around the donut shape. The easiest way to do this is to start at one edge of the opening, wrap it around the donut shape, and finish on the other side.

Continue wrapping around the donut shape until the hole in the center is filled. Try to wrap your hands as evenly as you can and not so tightly that the piece of cardboard gets twisted. ^{[8] X Research Source} If you like, you can change up the yarns in different colors to make the sphere more eye-catching. ^{[9] X Research Source}

Cut the yarns. Trim the excess yarn first, then slip the scissors between the loops and the piece of cardboard. Bring the scissors towards the outer edge of the donut shape and start cutting off the loops. Keep the bundle as it is, don’t let the yarns fall apart.

Cut a long piece of yarn and tie it around the center of the bundle. Separate the 2 pieces of cardboard slightly so that you can thread the yarn between the 2 pieces of cardboard. Knot the ends of the yarn tightly. Wrap one loop in the opposite direction and tie another double knot. ^{[10] X Research Source}

You can cut off excess yarn or tie the yarn into a loop to hang.

Use a fork

Place the end of the yarn across the teeth of the fork. You can use a plastic fork, but a metal fork is more difficult to bend or break. Since you are using a small tool, you should consider using a thinner yarn instead of a larger yarn.

Wrap the yarn around the fork teeth about 90 turns and cut the yarn. Do not wrap too tightly to avoid bending the fork. If the fork is bent, not only will the fork be damaged, but your wool ball will be uneven, and it will be more difficult to tie the loops afterwards.

Cut a piece of wool about 30 cm long. You will use this yarn to tie the ball of wool. If you’d like, you can thread the yarn into a knitting needle. This will make it easier for you to tie the wool ball.

Wrap the yarn you just cut around the loops on the fork. First, thread the yarn through the slit in the center of the fork, just below the loops. Next, wrap the yarn over the loops and loop down, as tight as possible.

Tie the yarn into a tight double knot. You can cut excess yarn or tie it into a loop to hang the ball.

Slide the loops off the fork, then cut off the loops at both ends. Gently whip the wool ball. You can use your fingers to whip or roll in the palms of your hands. Don’t worry if you lose some yarn.

Fix the sphere evenly. At this point, the sphere has taken shape, but it may still look shaggy. If it doesn’t look right to you, you can use scissors to trim the uneven yarns so that they are full. This step also makes the ball look thicker.

Advice

Wool balls can make great toys for cats! But remember to keep an eye on the cat, in case the orb pops open.
When knitting hats or other items that need to be decorated with wool balls, be sure to save enough wool to make the ball.
If you make a ball of multicolored wool, you will have a very stylish colorful wool ball!
If you don’t have multicolored wool, you can cut the yarn and continue to wrap it when you want to change the color. You can also wrap two or more colors at the same time.
You can use textured or iridescent wool for a unique ball of wool.
If you use thick wool, the ball will be more beautiful.

Warning

When making a ball of wool with your fingers, be careful not to wrap it too tightly: otherwise, there is a risk of blood loss.

Things you need

Use your fingers

Wool
Drag

Use cardboard

Cardboard
Pencil or ballpoint pen
Cup, small bowl or CD/DVD
Handmade carving knife
Wool
Drag

Use a fork

Metal Fork
Wool
Drag

Steps

Use your fingers

Use cardboard

Use a fork

Advice

Warning

Things you need

Use your fingers

Use cardboard

Use a fork

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