In search of the perfect pompon
The other day I knit up a skein of Nature's Way into a baby toque, and this toque needed a pompon. I have no love for making pompons. I have invested in pompon makers, but found them too fiddly. Usually resorting to cutting two pieces of strong cardboard and winding yarn around them, then securing and cutting and lots of trimming to even up the pompon, I found that tedious and wasteful.
I knew I needed something with a handle, an open end and rigid. Like a kitchen fork.
It worked like a charm! First I cut a piece of yarn about 12 inches long, and folded it in half, placing it on the front of the fork approximately in the middle. Then I began winding about 3 yards of yarn around the fork, making sure I didn't lose either end of the folded piece of yarn.
Once all the yarn was wound around the fork, as evenly as possible, I drew the cut ends of the folded piece of yarn through the loop. I pull quite tightly to make sure it was very secure. Note that I have positioned the tie in the middle of the fork tines.
Now, I flipped the fork over, and began cutting through the wound yarn positioning the scissors between the middle two tines.
Once all the wound yarn had been cut, I pulled on the tails of the knot just to make it more secure. Then I shook the pompon vigourously for a few moments, and began to trim the ends to make it as even as possible.
To my surprise there was not much "evening up" to do! Then, using the tails that hold the pompon together, I secured the pompon to the centre top of the toque.(I sewed each end in separately, by the way.)
The whole procedure took less than 5 minutes, and I am so pleased with the result. What do you think?
I knew I needed something with a handle, an open end and rigid. Like a kitchen fork.
It worked like a charm! First I cut a piece of yarn about 12 inches long, and folded it in half, placing it on the front of the fork approximately in the middle. Then I began winding about 3 yards of yarn around the fork, making sure I didn't lose either end of the folded piece of yarn.
Once all the yarn was wound around the fork, as evenly as possible, I drew the cut ends of the folded piece of yarn through the loop. I pull quite tightly to make sure it was very secure. Note that I have positioned the tie in the middle of the fork tines.
Now, I flipped the fork over, and began cutting through the wound yarn positioning the scissors between the middle two tines.
Once all the wound yarn had been cut, I pulled on the tails of the knot just to make it more secure. Then I shook the pompon vigourously for a few moments, and began to trim the ends to make it as even as possible.
To my surprise there was not much "evening up" to do! Then, using the tails that hold the pompon together, I secured the pompon to the centre top of the toque.(I sewed each end in separately, by the way.)
The whole procedure took less than 5 minutes, and I am so pleased with the result. What do you think?
Comments