Trim
Published On: June 21, 2018

Folks, we need to talk about pompom trimming.  This isn’t actually a sentence I ever thought I’d say, but apparently my life is odd.  I heard from so may folks saying some variation of ‘ack, your pompoms are perfect, mine never look like that.’  And I’m here to tell you it’s all in the trimming.  No one’s pompoms look perfect right off the maker.

Want proof?  Check this out.  That’s the two I made for this hat straight off the form.

Hot mess, right?  And that’s totally normal.  They always look like that.  You just need to trim them down.  I like to do my trimming in two sessions.  The first one gets it sort of shaped and a first pass at smoothing out the surface, but it doesn’t get all of it.  Here’s the first pass.

And that is better.  You could stop there if you wanted.  But I find I have a much better time if I then do a second pass.  It even try and do it a day or two later, I swear you’ll see things when you go in with fresh eyes that you missed the first time.

And the bits your cutting off are tiny.  Like itty bitty little fluff particles (which is why I do this outside…no one wants that inside).  But it makes a huge difference to the finished piece.

So if you don’t like your pompoms, don’t beat yourself up.  You’re probably just not trimming enough.  Try taking a break and giving it another go (and always always always use more yarn than you think you need…always).

Mailing List

Want to hear when a new pattern comes out or something fun is going on? Sign up below!

Patreon

Want to support the content I create, get nifty bonus material for some of my favorite patterns, or get every new release delivered right to your inbox? Head over to patreon and sign up!

Search
Archives