DIY:Leftover Yarn Christmas Wreath

This weekend, Chicago is getting smacked with a good snowstorm. The grocery store was packed as everyone prepared to huddle inside. On top of the weather, I am also sick, so basically that means I sat on the couch all weekend watching Christmas movies under 3 blankets.

I wanted to be somewhat productive, though, so I did some minimal effort crafting. With a bunch of red, green, and white yarn leftover from this previous project and a few others, I decided to put together my own pom pom Christmas wreath.

I made 3 different sized poms, large, medium, and small, using different weights of yarn for added texture. Hours later, the floor was covered in yarn fuzz, and I had a pile of varying size multi-colored yarn balls.

I needed something to affix them to, so I headed to the basement where I happened to keep this gigantic Target box. I knew it would come in handy! I used an Exacto knife to cut a wreath shape and then wrapped it in what was left of the green yarn.

After arranging the pom poms into a decently looking order, I tied them to the green yarn that I had wrapped around the cardboard. To help keep the poms attached, I used some hot glue as well.

I popped it on our door and admired my handiwork. Not bad for some sickly crafting from the couch.

DIY: Knit Bunting

I am a sub-par knitter.

I have made probably 10 scarves and 5 sets of baby booties, but I have not ventured much beyond that.

First pom poms

First cable-knit scarf

Two years ago, I took the leap to try knitting socks using double pointed needles and I failed miserably.

Anyway, since I had some orange yarn, I wanted to do some crafting and knit these cute little pumpkins to put on my kitchen table. All the patterns I looked at called for DPNs. So I pulled out my DPNs that still had the 3 inches of poorly knitted sock attached. Once I slide that off, I attempted the evil needles again.

As per the last time, it was a mess. No amount of YouTube videos could save me. At that point, I decided to just knit something I knew how to do.

After perusing Pinterest for a bit, I came up with the idea to create a bunting banner. I was going to knit 6 triangles in 3 different colors. As I started knitting, the project evolved further. I started to envision felt leaves stitched onto each triangle. Then I thought of the button box my mom has of a million old buttons. Those would be accents sewn on.

First, I knit all 6 triangles using this pattern in yellow, orange, and gray. Second I needed to trace the leaves. Since I do not have a printer, I decided to just freehand the leaves and trace onto the felt from there. After I traced each leave twice, I carefully cut them out.

I played with color combinations before choosing which leaf would go where and then started to stitch them on.

Once the buttons were finished being attached in little clusters of three, I wove a piece of jute string through each triangle with my darning needle to be able to hang it up.

My weirdly planned project ended up turning out really well! It is a nice addition for homemade fall decorations. I loved it so much, I may start working on a Christmas version!

What do you think about it? Would you want one of these in your house to celebrate the changing of the seasons?