Somewhere on Instagram, I came across the Pom Maker feed and fell instantly, madly in love with their adorable wooden pom pom makers and beautiful pom poms. I had to have one! The fact that it was entirely made of wood seemed especially attractive to me – until then, I had only ever seen plastic pom pom makers, none of which struck me as being particularly wonderful.  When my pom maker arrived, it did not disappoint one bit. It is smooth and perfectly made, the wood is lightweight and very comfortable in the hand. it comes in it’s own muslin drawstring pouch, with an instruction booklet.

 It didn’t come with scissors or yarn, those are mine.

Not only does it look like an adorable doughnut (and comes in different colours), this is the easiest pom pom maker I’ve ever used. Which is great, because Lila is fascinated and now she wants to make pom poms, too. The pom it produces is pretty big, about the size of my hand, with only a tiny bit of trimming to even it out. It would be great as an oversized (but not ridiculous) pom on any adult hat:

The white pom I made afterwards is the same size but even fluffier, once I finally got my pom pom groove. This is about the biggest size you can make, and then to get a smaller pom pom you just keep trimming it down. It works for any thickness of yarn, although I imagine a laceweight pom pom will be pretty labour intensive with all the wrapping. These are made with aran weight craft yarn that were just hanging around in my stash.

Pom Maker has video tutorials on their site, although the instruction booklet that comes in the storage pouch was more than enough to make a basic pom pom. But I wanted to see how difficult it would be to make one of their fancy pom poms, the panda.

I followed the video, and I was feeling pretty proud of my panda pom pom, especially for a first attempt. Mine turned out a bit small because I kept trimming and trimming, trying to get the face even. Still- definitely a panda, right?

And then I made the mistake of asking my family what they thought. Guy said it didn’t look like a panda, it needed bigger eyes. But I felt vindicated when Lila saw it and immediately asked if she could play with it. I let her play with it for a bit and then asked her, “what animal is it?” and she looked at it thoughtfully, and then said, “is it a puppy?”

Whatever. I still like my pom pom panda. I feel like it would be perfect on top of this hat.

Now I’m obsessed with making pom poms, it is the perfect way to use up leftover partial skeins. If you decide to get one of these utterly charming pom makers  too and then are wondering what you would do with all your new pom poms, I’ve got you covered! I was also wondering the same thing so I started a pom pom crafts Pinterest board with all sorts of ideas. I particularly like the gift topper idea and the fridge magnets! Pom Maker also has a Pinterest account, but it looks like they are just setting it up and haven’t quite got it populated just yet. I’m following anyway, and looking forward to more tutorials. Guy says that my panda looks more like a koala, so maybe koala next? I feel like I could make an excellent koala!