A classic summer yarn craft gets a new fun twist

Happy summer! In just a few days, we’ll be officially celebrating the summer solstice and the arrival of a new season! On the Jewish calendar, the summer solstice is called Tefukat Tammuz - solstice of the month of Tammuz.

This is my favorite time of year! Growing up, I got a free-pass from my mom to be lazy and just enjoy the sunshine. Days were spent playing and crafting with my sister and friends in our backyard. Our favorite summer crafts were made with yarn in happy colors! Now that people are starting to meet up again, this summer seems extra happy, and I love the idea of getting together with friends to make some of my all-time favorite summer yarn crafts.

We recently made summer solstice pom-pom wands (a fun twist on the classic pom-pom). Making pom-poms into wands felt extra summery and magical, so we decided to make another favorite yarn craft, a sun wheel, as a wand too!

We’ll be using our pom-pom and sun wheel wands to wave hi to the sun on the sunniest day of the year!

I love making the sun wheel wand as a collab with kiddos (I’d pre-make the sun-wheel structure first), but I would love it even more so outside during golden hour with some grown-up friends and a glass of wine (I’ve learned that you’re never too old to play with yarn, it’s just called fiber art after your 20s - haha). Sun wheels brings happiness and promise of sunny days, So let’s go make some sun wheel wands!

DIY Sun Wheel Wand

For each wand, you’ll need:

Yarn in sunny colors
Tree branch about 12-16” long and at least .25” in diameter
2-3 shorter branches, about 10” long
Scissors
Hot glue (grown-ups only please)

Optional supplies make your wand extra wonderful:

Fork (to make tiny pom-poms)
Tiny alphabet stamps
Ink pad

Here’s how to make a sun wheel wand:

1. Start by building your structure. I love that my longest branch is curved for this wand. It feels lovey and organic.

We used two smaller branches for this sun wheel, but you could use a third branch in the wheel if you’d like.

2. Glue of center of the sticks where they join together with the hot glue (grown-ups only).

3. Grab your first color of yarn. Tie it around the center of the wheel, and start wrapping the yarn 6-8 times around each of the middle branches going all the way around the center of the wheel.

3. Keep wrapping until the center is completely covered.

4. After the center is covered, begin wrapping the yarn under and then around each branch in a clockwise direction. While wrapping, I like holding the wheel by the longest branch. I think it’s best to keep it steady and facing up while wrapping.

5. When you want to change colors, cut the current string of yarn, and tie on the new color. Keep wrapping, and later you can short the yarn tails with your scissors.

6. I would have kept going with yarn colors, but I ran out of room on some of the branches. I ended up trimming the branches to about the same length.

7. When it’s all covered and the branches are trimmed up, flip your sun wheel over. I attached some tiny pom-poms to ours, and you’d like, and tie some extra-long fluttery strands of yarn in pretty colors under the sun wheel on the wand. They’ll look extra magical when waving at the sun.

My favorite way to make tiny pom-poms is with a fork. These were made by wrapping the yarn around a fork, about 50 times. Afterwards, I slipped the yarn off the fork, tied it in the center, cut the loops…

and trimmed.

One last sweet touch to personalize your wand, and especially cute with children, is to stamp their name onto a piece of ribbon and then tie it to the wand.

It’s really sweet to tell your child that now their name will always be part of the sun.

And that’s it! A wonderful sun wand! Wave it high in the sky to capture some sun rays, and then bring it inside for some extra happiness and warmth, no matter the season.

I hope this summer solstice and this new season will be sunny and happy for you and all you love! Let me know if you make a sun wheel wand, or a summer solstice pom-pom wand. If you do, please wave hi to the sun for me, and if you love pom-poms crafts as much as me, we have an adorable DIY apple and honeybee pom-pom necklace and DIY apple and honeybee pom-pom cupcake toppers! And for more summer ideas, visit our Summer Round-up! We’ll be adding sunny crafts, recipes and outings all summer long!

Happy summer!

~Jennifer