Colorful and Easy Yarn Crafts for Kids - Red Ted Art

We love working with Yarn or Wool on this blog. Most people think “Yarn” and think Knitting or Crochet.. and are a little daunted to start knitting with kids etc. But there are lots of amazing yarn crafts for kids you can do, that don’t require a particularly detailed skill. Here we share some of our favourite yarn projects to date!

There are so many great things you can make with yarn and wool and we have made many things over the years. It is worth adding 203 colours of wool to any basic craft stash!

I have tried to order all our yarn crafts by themes – from weaving type projects (great for pattern recognition) to pom pom crafts and yarn wrapping (a wonderful activity for younger children). I haven’t listed ALL our projects here.. as many have collections of their won (.e.g Pom Pom Crafts) and I didn’t want to bore you with super long list… so picked out my favourite to inspire you…

5 Favourite Yarn DIYs

The video playing shows an overview of 5 of our favourite yarn crafts. More details here!

What is the easiest thing to make out of yarn?

There are SO many lovely yarn crafts to choose from.. but if I had to pick the easiest yarn craft.. I would probably get you making one of the yarn wrapping projects below. They are cute and fun and so easy, especially for little hands!

Yarn Weaving Projects for Kids

Weaving projects are a great way to use up odds and ends of yarn and any small pieces of yarn you may have left over. It is a great way to avoid making a trip the craft store and making any unnessary purchases and to work with what you have to hand! Weaving is also fantastic for developing fine motor skills in kids of all ages.

As mentioned above, weaving projects are fantastic for pattern recognition and concentration. There are many great simple and more intense projects tou can give a go. I woudl probably start with traditional God’s Eye weaving or the Paper Plate Flowers. They are relatively quick and easy to make and look great.

Traditional God’s Eye Weaving – a childhood classic that even younger children can master. I think my kids where preschoolers when they first made this and really loved the mesmerizing process! I love that you can use popsicle sticks, natural sticks, straws of coffee stirrers to make these! Work with what you have to hand! The craft train also has a cute popsicle stick woven butterfly using this technique
Watermelon God’s Eye Weaving
Flower God’s Eyes they look great and are easy to make than you think! Yes, my kids managed these too, once they got into a yarn wrapping routine and they are simply beautiful, don’t you think?
Milk Carton Basket Weaving
Make Woven Dolls such an adorable project and really one of the best ways of using up small pieces of yarn.. and a wonderful way to introduce different textures.. you can weave with yarn, string, pipe cleaners, ribbons.. etc a wonderful way to use up odds and ends and test your creativity
Paper Plate woven flowers – these have been super popular for a long time. Remember, the key to these is an uneven number of petals.. else the weaving doesn’t work! They make great wall decor once finished.. and you can easily change the colors of these flowers to turn them into sunflowers or a poppy on remembrance day
Paper plate dream catchers

Pom Pom Making for Kids – How do you make a pom pom step by step?

Pom poms are so much fun and satisfying to make. They are perfect for those of you asking “what can I make with one ball of yarn?” as a little more yarn is required to make these.. but most pom pom projects only need one color ball of yarn!

Pom pom crafts are of course a staple of ANY Yarn Craft for kids article. You can’t not have some pom poms in there. We have an extensive collection of pom pom crafts for you to explore and there are also a number of Pom Pom Making Techniques.. however, if we had to pick out our favourites, it would have to be:

How do you make pom pom animals?

Look no further… we have a lovely set of pom pom animals for you today. There are so many great Pom Pom projects out there. But from Red Ted Art, these would be our most popular pom pom craft ideas:

You can use these pom poms as part of Pom Pom Wreaths or colourful Zipper Pulls/ Back Pack Charm for kids. You can glue them on to pencils as pom pom pencil toppers or you can add them to keychains. You can make pom pom garlands.. or pom pom ornaments. So many ways to use your pom poms.

And how do you make Halloween pom poms?

For Halloween I would porbably have to pick our Pom Pom Bats or Pom Pom Spiders. Both are ridiculously cute AND colorful!

Finger Knitting for Kids

This section is great for those of you asking “what I can Knit with 1 skein of yarn?”. Finger knitting projects don’t need too much wool and are fun and easy to do!

The next thing we adore doing with yarn, is finger knitting! Again, we have a number of finger knitting projects and tutorials, from finger knitting with two fingers, using two strands to finger knit and connecting finger knitted strands…. So much to explore and have a go at. But again, if I had to pick out just a few, I would start with these finger knitting projects:

Finger knitted bunny
Finger knitted butterfly – who doesn’t love butterflies? Make a whole set and use them as wall decor!
Finger knitted rainbow
Finger knitted snake
Finger knitting beanie (advanced)

Learn how to make tassles

First we had pom poms, now we have tassels. We like making tassles using just our fingers, but you can also use a small rectangular piece of cardboard.

Tassles are super fun to make and great to add to all sorts of projects such as:

Yarn Wrapping Projects for Kids

Working with toddlers and preschoolers? Then give yarn wrapping a go. Yarn Wrapping is another one of those great crafts that are supper fun to make wih lovely results. You can wrap as much or as little as you like and projects willl still be cute. It is also a grat project to work on with kids of different ages as all kids can manage a bit of yarn wrapping! Really a fun yarn craft that is colourful and great to get stuck into!

Yarn Wrapped Wreaths

Combine yarn wrapping with your favourite pom poms! Choose the yarn color to match your pom pom them and make these easy yarn crafts:

Yarn Wrapped Cardboard

Yarn Wrapped Cloud Rainbows – simply so very cheery and happy
Yarn Wrapped Apples
Yarn Wrapped Shamrocks
Yarn Wrapped Stars – lovely little Christmas ornaments
Similarly, Buggy & Buddy combines craft sticks with yarn wrapping to make some super cute yarn wrapped reindeer ornaments
Yarn Wrapped Heart Boomarks – these make a great gift for Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day
Yarn Wrapped Pumpkins – these are lovely little yearn Halloween craft, but can also be used for Thanksgiving
Yarn Wrapped Letters by kids craft room

Other Yarn Wrapped Crafts

Yarn Wrapped Toilet Roll Sheep
Yarn Wrapped Owls – these are particularly good for using up yarn scraps! Such a fun craft that doubles up as a gift box
Yarn Wrapped Groundhog Day Craft
Gorgeous Wire Wrapped Hearts – also great for yarn scraps and yarn in different colors
Scroll down to the bottom of All Day Primary for a great Toilet roll bracelets pdf
Babble Dabble Do has some whimiscal stick wands using yarn sticks. A great open ended exploration of yarn wrapping and great for using up left over colors of yarn!

Paper Plate Sewing Crafts

These paper plate sewing projects are a great way to get young kids practciing their sewing skills. And the results are super cute!

Paper plate sewing hearts – these are wonderful valentine’s day decor that kids of all ages can make.
Paper plate sewing chicks – similarly an easter version. Such an adorable yarn craft that also promotes fine motor skills and sewing skills!

Other great Yarn Projects for Kids include:

Finally a section of yarn related crafts that don’t fit under other topics! Lots of fantastic fun ideas to explore here

Friendship bracelets – we LOVE LOVE LOVE making friendship bracelets and using the right technique they can look great using ordinary yarn. In this article we show you how to make friendship bracelets using a cardboard disc. So easy peasy and fun!
Glue Yarn Bowls – definitely a great one for using up odds and ends of yarn and any yarn scraps you can find. Having said that, the more natural fibres your yarn has, the easier this glue bowl making technique will work!
Worry Dolls – another fun little craft, that doesn require much yarn and therefor is great for using up those scraps of yarn at the bottom of your craft drawer! The results are no less fantastic.
Yarn Wrapped Rattle Sticks
Snipped Yarn Rainbows
Yarn Monsters
Easy Yarn Dolls by Be Brave Keep Going – one for older kids with more dexterity and ability to make some knots

Yarn Ornaments

We also have some cute yarn Christmas Ornaments!

Yarn as hair!

And let’s not forget that it is good to always have some wool or yarn in your craft stash as it makes the perfect hair for all sorts of projects. Here just a few examples:

Crochet and Knitting

I don’t want to spend TOO long on crochet or knitting.. as either you love it or you don’t. But I did want to highlight these posts, to maybe help you have a go: