Make it! A how-to for super-simple yarn toys your cats will love. Whip one up in less than 5 minutes! Crafty!

FOR EACH BALL YOU WILL NEED

  • Approximately 4 yards (4 meters) of any colour of yarn (Whatever yarn you have on hand will work just fine. You can make tons of these toys out of a single ball of yarn.)
  • One short piece of yarn, about 6 inches (15 cm) in length, to tie off the ball
  • Scissors
  • Ruler or tape measure if you want to be exact, but really you can just make this thing whatever size you want. The more yarn you use in Step #1, the larger your finished toy will be.

HOW-TO

  1. Wrap your length of yarn around the index and middle fingers of one hand. Keep your fingers together so that the width of your looped yarn is around 1.5 inches (4 cm). (Imagine making a “gun” with the index and middle fingers of one hand. Wrap the yarn tightly around those two fingers—you want to have a nice, tight loop of yarn—until all your yarn is wrapped around your fingers.
  2. Slide the yarn off of your fingers, ensuring the loop stays intact.
  3. Use your short piece of yarn to tie the loop across the middle, so that it forms a figure 8. Tie the knot as tight as possible. (Feel free to tie it a couple times if you feel like it could be tighter.)
  4. Snip the looped ends on both sides and fan out the yarn. Trim any long strings to make a uniform ball.
  5. Let Mittens play!

Tip: You can use a wire bristle brush to brush out the yarn of the finished ball to make it fluffy, if your cat prefers.

For more toys your cat will love click here.