Thursday, March 26, 2015

Making a Watermelon PomPom

That's right, I made this myself!

The ravelry user Chiyo915 has created some of the most amazing pompoms I've ever seen.  Not only does she share sketches of how she made the various pompoms, but there are also some amazing step by step images.  I decided to give the watermelon pompom a try because I didn't think that I could mess it up too badly.

I selected to use Fingering weight KnitPicks Pallet yarn in white, black and colors that I hand dyed.  I picked the smaller pompom maker (35 mm) I have for my first watermelon attempt, we'll see how this goes!


I looked at the step by step pictures on the project page rather than following the wrap counts on the notes.  I think this would be important for some of the pompom animals, but it was a little much to do on something that is more of a guideline like the watermelon.


The moment of truth is here... it is time to start cutting.  


The first cuts are promising.  It looks like I'm looking into a real watermelon!


I had wrapped this so tightly that I felt like the strands were going to pop themselves off of the pompom maker.  I tied some yarn around and POOF pulled it out.  


Normally pompoms are round, but this has so many strands that it has an oval shape.  It definitely needs a haircut.  


I now have a stunning watermelon pompom.... and what should I do with it?  I'm tempted to just hang it somewhere in my house.  It is so cute that it needs a place of honor.  


Wahoo!  That was SO MUCH fun!  I hope that I can create some other creatures in the future.  Please send me your tips and favorite pattern pages.   There are some more charts on this user's project pages, but there aren't step by step wrap photos like with the watermelon.  Do you guys have any tips?  (I really want to make the pompom fox and the pompom sheep.  I'm a little nervous to give it a shot, but the worst that will happen is that I'll get a wonky pompom, right?)