Giant Rainbow Wall Hanging

Made with my Addi 22 Pin Knitting Machine

I made a Giant Rainbow Wall Hanging using pool noodles, here’s how I made it

If you would like to make your own, here's what you will need

First thing first, gather some supplies. I bought my pool noodles at the Dollar Tree and I found that they are not all the same length…most measured 48″ but I did end up with a couple that were 49″. Be sure to measure them to make sure they are 48″ and if they are 49″ be sure to trim the largest one down an inch.

I also wasn’t able to find pool noodles in all of the rainbow colors. I purchased 2 red, 2 green and 1 blue so that I could try and match up the yarn colors as best I could. I had seen that Walmart had pool noodles in other colors, but their pool noodles were inconsistent in size, some were bigger around than others so I chose to use the ones from the Dollar Tree as all colors had the same measurement for the diameter.

Supplies Needed

5 pool noodles

Sharp Scissors

22 Pin Knitting Machine – I have an Addi Express Professional 22 Pin

Worsted Weight Yarn – I used Big Twist Value purchased at Joann

Varsity Red

Orange

Varsity Gold

Light Green

Varsity Blue

Grape

Super Bulky Weight Yarn – I used Lion Brand Wool-Ease this yarn will be used for the pom poms

Lettuce Knife or Utility Knife for cutting pool noodles, though sharp scissors work fine too

Long Plastic Yarn Needle I purchased mine in a bulk pack on Amazon, but they sell 2-packs of these long yarn needles at Joann

For the row counts and pool noodle measurements you will need to purchase the PDF pattern

Giant Rainbow Wall Hanging Pattern

Cutting the pool noodles

Pool Noodle Rainbow Wall Hanging — I used a lettuce knife to cut my pool noodles, this knife seemed to work the best since it has such a large blade. I would start at the top and pull the knife towards me when cutting. You can also just use scissors to cut pull noodles, or use a utility knife.

Pool Noodle Giant Rainbow Wall Hanging — As I cut my pool noodles I lay them out to makes sure that the bottoms line up pretty well. If you need to trim down any of the pool noodles, this is the time to do it. Because the pool noodles will give resistance when formed into an arch I found placing them between two clamps on my table and weighting them down with some weighted objects (I am using a heavy wooden bowl and two boxes of Sticker Mule Hot sauce, lol). You don’t want anything too heavy that will dent the pool noodles, but just enough weight so that they do not pop up.

Time to crank out those tubes

See my PDF pattern, available for purchase in my shop for the row counts I used.

Giant Rainbow Wall Hanging Pattern

I use my Tension Fork™ to keep tension when knitting my tubes with my knitting machine and use a tight tension. I do sell my Tension Fork™, it is available for sale in my Etsy Shop.

Once all of the tubes have been knitted, slide them over each of the tubes. Now you are ready to put the wall hanging together.

Giant Rainbow Wall Hanging — For the center purple piece I do add a small amount of poly-fil to round the top f the noodle, this helps it fill in the space better on the rainbow. Because of this I cover this piece with 2 knit tubes.

I wasn’t sure how to describe everything that I did in writing so I have a video of how I did it. I don’t really have a proper set up to record such a large project so hopefully the video makes sense and that most of you are able to follow what I have done.

Making the pom poms

I used Lion Brand Yarn Wool-Ease Thick and Quick for my pom poms, I made 3 poms at a time by using the back of a chair to wrap the yarn onto, then I tied the center strings and cut each pom. I did trim down each pom somewhat to shape them before adding them to the rainbow.

Giant Pool Noodle Rainbow Wall Hanging PomPom Making — I didn’t count how many times I wrapped my yarn, but I wanted my pom poms to be really full so I wrapped quite a few times around my chair back.

Giant Pool Noodle Rainbow Wall Hanging Supplies PomPom — My chair backs are 16″ wide, I tied the yarn tie about 4″ from each end or so and then tied one in the center. This made 3 large poms for me that were the perfect size for my rainbow.

Giant Pool Noodle Rainbow Wall Hanging PomPoms — I trimmed first then took the poms off of the chair back. I also used the same yarn for the center ties, this made it so that I could trim long tails and hide them amongst the other poms when added to the rainbow. You will have to trim down the pom poms a bit to shape them as they will not be completely perfect using this method.

Adding a backing

I didn’t add a backing onto this wall hanging, but if you want to add one you can follow the instructions from my smaller rainbow wall hanging. I would suggest using a large poster board. I don’t know how necessary the backing is on the larger rainbow as the back only has one string that is just barely visible. For the smaller wall hanging that I make the backing helps hide some of the strings that are used to hold the rainbow together.

DIY Rainbow Wall Hanging Knitting Machine Pattern

Backing a wall hanging — You can also use cotton batting for the back of the wall hanging. I just lay the wall hanging onto the batting and use it to draw a template. Then I hot glued the cotton on.

Thank you for making it this far

I hope you find this tutorial easy to follow! I have had a lot of fun making rainbow wall hangings and the pool noodle giant version is a really fun one to make.

If you have the time I would appreciate it if you would visit my Etsy Shop, sales on patterns and other printables such as the Rainbow Wall Hanging Care Cards help me out a lot so that I can keep adding tutorials like these on my blog. I choose to not have pop up ads, I love not having ads all over my site, I don’t want to add ads other than a few affiliate links here and there to my posts as I think ads really ruin the viewing experience. I am hoping if I can continue to make sales in my Etsy Shop to help me with my finances I can continue to add freebies to my site.

Thank you so much

Savla

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