Customer Reviews

Pom-Pom Pals

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3 star:		(3)
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The initial instructions to make a pom-pom aren't super detailed. It says it comes w/ materials to make Pomidou (or whatever, red guy w/ two puffs)... I'm still winding yarn around the cutouts to make the first pom-pom... i'm down to my last section of yarn and haven't even completed one pom-pom. i'm trying to figure out if i'm doing something wrong or if it just takes way more yarn than provided. (the circle/cutouts are really big) If anyone has this & sucessfully made the guy using the materials, please post a review with some details! Thanks!

As others have said, the pom-poms are very time-consuming to make, but you can speed up the process by varying the directions. The author's directions say to wind one length of yarn around the form - instead, I use 8-10 lengths at once, it sure goes faster. Also, plan on using lots of yarn. The author only hints at the amount needed (about 3 oz of yarn for the medium pom-pom) - note that a full skein of yarn is about 7 oz, so plan on using almost half. You do not need to wind tightly, but you should plan on trimming away almost half of the yarn to get the tight even texture as in the photos. This is definitely a project for an adult or a much older child.

As stated in nearly all the above reviews... this kit does not come with enough yarn to make the 2 pompoms required for the project. My plan is to unwind the whole thing and use the smaller template to see if that helps. My 6 year old begged for this at the store, so we bought it on Amazon. I'm glad we did because I love the idea and the book is worth purchasing as long as you have extra yarn on hand for the project. Also, because I read the reviews first, I also wound 10 strands at a time around instead of one. Great tip!

My 5-year old saw this in a bookstore and BEGGED for days to purchase it with her allowance money. I have to admit, the boxed "kit" with cute graphics are tempting - kudos to the publisher on the "wow!" factor.
Anyhow, we eventually bent and let me just say - these projects are cute, but need an adult to help out. And to be perfectly honest, those pictures shown on the box and in the book are completely unrealistic to achieve.
That's not unnecessarily a bad thing though as we are happy with the results and have made a few additional Pom-Pom's with store bought yarn, felt, and some spare buttons in the drawers around the house.
Would I buy this again? Yes! We've since gone off the path and designed our own, and they look pretty good. She's now on a quest to make a few for Christmas for friends. I'm just happy we have 8 months to do so.

Some TIPS:
1. Wrap around 8-12 strands at a time. One at a time is just painfully slow and completely unnecessary.
2. Cut all of the yarn into 2 yard pieces and place onto floor/large table before wrapping.
3. Takes about 2 spools of yarn to make something even remotely "tight" as shown in the picture.
4. Not really a tip, but a question -- I'm still not sure how they make "feet" as shown in the book, if anybody has any tips, I'd love to know.

Ok, I, too am still winding the yarn for the pompidou. The cutouts that are given for winding just the medium pom poms are HUGE! There is definitely not enough yarn given. As a test, I used my own yarn to just do the small pom pom, and I wound for quite some time. When I finally got to what I thought was the end, it didn't come out at all like the picture. On second glance, each pom pom must use quite a bit of yarn to get that dense texture seen on each of the pals. Also, you probably have to wind pretty tightly, which will only use more yarn. Easy but SUPER time consuming and repetitive. 3 stars for the cuteness factor. Lost 2 for the poor explanations of how much yarn it actually takes to make a pom pom. Does anyone else have some tips on making these things?