Ok, so if I've convinced you to make your pompoms with much more yarn than you would expect (and if I haven't go read the previous post again), then the next step is to get you trimming them. There's really no secret to this other than practice, persistence, and patience. That and maybe seeing that ALL pompoms look like a shaggy mess when they come off the form. No really all of them. Every time. Every single time. You just need to trim them into submission.  I do it in a few passes, shape first, tidy up second, and a [...]

I warned you we were going to talk about pompoms this week.  I fully realize that this is ridiculous.  There are actual problems in this world and the last thing we should be spending time on is fluffy yarn balls.  And yet...somehow here I am...full of opinions about pompoms.  Perhaps it's a distraction technique. Alright, first things first, I really like working with a pompom maker.  You can technically do it without (something about forks or circles of cardboard or even your fingers), but I've never been able to make a pompom I like that way.  So given that I make [...]

Remember how I said I'd sorted out a clever way to do detachable pompoms?  And how I said it was all in hideous detail in the Wavering pattern, but we'd do a quick rundown here?  Yeah, how about we do that! So, you're going to need one tiny extra gizmo to pull this off.  You need a set of toggle clasps (like for jewelry making).  I used these (as always, amazon links are affiliate links), but you can probably find them at your local craft store or anywhere that sells stuff for making jewelry. The idea is that you use [...]

The gray hat with the orange stripe clearly clearly needs a pompom. It's meant for a pompom.  So let's do this. This is the first go on my newly discovered goldilocks pompom maker (as always, amazon links are affiliate links).  Not too big, not too small, just right, and so far I'm smitten. As always, pompom happiness (at least for me...I suppose opinions could vary) comes from making sure your pompom is very very very densely wrapped.  I also like to use a scale to be sure I'm getting the same amount of yarn on each side of the pompom.  And really...I [...]

So you might remember a while ago I went and got Very Excited About Pompoms.  As often happens when I get excited about something, I got some tools (I'm a very firm believer in having good tools). I found myself in possession of both the large and small pompom makers from Clover (as always, amazon links are affiliate links).  They work great...they totally make tidy pompoms with relatively little swearing. But here's the thing...the pompoms that the large set makes are, well...large.  Rather larger than I can sport on the top of my hat and still consider myself a proper [...]