Organic Wool Pompom DIY

Anybody who has been in the shop recently has met our magnificent lion. He is huge, pink and green, and festooned with the cheerful multicolored pompoms! After a season of admiring his flair I decided that it was high time to make my own pompom adornments. These organic wool pompoms are light, fluffy, and bursting with color. They are also easy to make!

What you will need:

"Fairy Wool" Roving. This roving is organic and plant dyed, and comes in a rainbow of colors.

Craft Thread.

A Pompom Maker. I'm using a vintage one but this one from eeBoo is just the thing. Another option is to make your own pompom maker out of a heavy cardboard.

Kai Scissors. Sharp scissors are essential.

Steam.

Cut an 20" piece of string and loop it around the pompom maker.

Wrap wool roving around the top of the maker, layering colors as you go. Making pompoms is extremely forgiving so there is a lot of leeway in how much wool to use. Try using more or less and see what you like. 

Tie the string around the bundle of wool while it is still on the maker. Tie it as tightly as you can and make a knot.

Cut around the sides of the bundle, along the edge of the maker. Be careful not to cut through your string! Remove the messy bundle from the pompom maker.

Trim the pompom until it looks even and tidy. This will take a while: they require a good deal of small snipping and trimming to get them just right. Visualize poodles. 

If you want, you can steam your pompom to fluff and even it out. The steam relaxes the wool fibers and helps the little stray hairs blend in. I steamed my pompom over the kettle. 

My own lion bobbles just in time for Chinese New Year! Stay tuned for what I am going to do with them.

Update 2/21/14: