[make] waiting room crafts - part 1

I recently spent a great deal of time in a hospital waiting room.  My sister had a scheduled surgery, so I came prepared with a bag of what I hoped could keep me occupied for at least eight hour stretch.  I started with pom poms because I had seen these super cute pom flowers on Pinterest.

I tried the fork version to no avail (the baby teal ones pictured below).  Either I put too much yarn or I didn't get it tied tightly enough.  They came out all sideways and weird. So then I went to the hand method, also pinned, but then they were loosey goosey and so again, craft fail (more weird but larger teal ones).  At this point I've gathered the attention of my mother, brother, father and niece who are all giving me advice on what I'm doing wrong.  This is not to mention the rest of the people in the waiting room and the fact that I've commandeered the waiting room trash can.  So because "she said so", I tried Mom's version.

(1) The piece of "tying" yarn is threaded between your middle and ring finger and then them you close your hand tightly and (2) wrap until you can't feel the ends of your fingers anymore from lack of circulation.  (3) Tie off the yarn in the middle as tight as you can, wrap the yarn around and tie it one more time for good measure and then (4) cut the ends.  Trim and trim some more.

So Mom as usual, completely and utterly correct - see the nice shaped cream colored poms?  I guess you should trust the person who made all those pom poms for your skates so many years ago.  Now to put them on stems for my flowers!  I did pack my glue gun but I finished up the pom flowers when I got back home with these results.

 Thanks Mom!!