Spaghetti v Pompom

Miniature Pompoms

Now I love a pompom or 2 and I've tried many an implement to make them, as you will know from one of my previous posts, but when I was stuck and bored and wanted to make something, I tried to make my own out of 2 metal skewer sticks! I know not the brightest idea, but I honestly thought that if I had a circle with 2 halves it would be easy! Then I read about making pompoms with a kitchen fork. The results are fantastic and to be honest I think they are better than using any of the pompom makers that I have purchased.

So to get started you need a 4 ply or DK wool, i haven't tried anything thinner, but i find these work best for pompoms to get the fluffy effect. A normal dinner fork or a large salad fork if you wanted to make a bigger pompom are all that you need. Then you get an approx 6" length of the wool and put it through the middle prong and hold it in place with your thumb. This is needed to tie the other end together to secure. Then you just wind the wool around the fork, as if you were winding up spaghetti. I did this 50 - 60 times to get a denser pompom, but if you wanted a smaller and thinner pompom 30 - 40 would be fine, but not less than that, otherwise you won't have any wool to trim afterwards. Once you have wound the wool like spaghetti around the prongs of the fork you then have to cut and tie the to lengths together on the side of the fork. I did this in a double knot just so it doesn't come apart.

Then you need to push the wound wool up the fork so that you can thread some wool in the prong and over to get a bow effect. So to do this you need a short length of the wool or a matching thread that is quite strong  and tie this through the middle prong as shown and i found that if i tied this at the front and again at the back it gave a stronger hold. Do not snip off this tread as you will need this to either sew onto jumpers etc, or as i do to tie onto parcels, presents etc.

Then you take the bundle off the fork, snip off close to the knot on the side the threads that you tied to hold in place, but not the threads that you tied and then as with a pompom maker start snipping around the looped edges, being careful not to snip your middle threads (believe me its easily done!) I found that it was easier to do this with a thin sharp pair of hairdresser scissors so that you can get into the little bundle and not spoil or snip the middle thread.

Once you have snipped all the edges, hold the pompom quite flat so you have the dense part in your fingers and then start to snip off around the edges all the long threads and you will start to see the pompom taking shape. If you are happy with your shape after this then just take the long threads and give the pompom a good shake to get the ball effect and you have a mini pompom. I prefer to then carry on cutting the pompom all over giving it a good hair cut so that the pompom gets a denser effect and you end up with a pompom massacre on your hands. All the trimmings can be kept in a plastic bag and then mixed in with your stuffing for other projects or save it up and in the spring put it on the grass for the nesting birds to use. A win win situation for all those involved in the addictive process of pompom making.

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