Clover Pom Pom Maker Review and Tutorial

Hey everyone, it's Deja from CrochetEverAfter.com. Today I'm going to do a review on the Clover Pom Pom Maker. So you can see that I have four different sizes here. So I have small and large. I'm not sure if there's a medium, I'll have to check that out. But it looks like the small will give me 1-3-8 and 1-5-8 inch diameter pom poms and the large will give me 2-1-2 and 3-3-8 inch pom poms. Um, I am absolutely horrible at making pom-poms. I don't know what it is, but I can never get them very full, I can't get them very even. I just do, I have a horrible time making pom-poms, you know, when you use, like, just cardboard. So I got these to see if these will help my pom-pom making abilities. So I am going to follow the directions exactly as they tell me to work and make my very first pom-pom with these in front of you. So we can see how well these work and how easy they are. So I'm not guaranteeing a perfect pom-pom the very first time, but I will work at it so that if it doesn't look very good, I'll figure out how to make it look better and share it with you so that you guys can get some good pom-poms. So let's hopefully make some nice pom-poms. Okay, so I've got my pom-pom maker out of the package. And you have some colored instructions on the back. And then you also have a little bit more detail on the inside, not too much more, it doesn't really tell you like how many strands of yarn to use as you're wrapping but it kind of gives you the gist of it. So this piece it pops apart because that's how you're going to get your pom-pom off and it tells you to line up your arms and you can see that these open up together on one side and open up together on the other side. So what we're going to do is wrap the yarn All along these spaces here, so we're going to start doing that. I'm going to use about three strands at once just to make it go faster, and it says to make sure not to wind too thickly in the center part so that it can still close. So I have to be careful of that. That's the one warning it gives you. So again, I am not great at making pom-poms, so we're going to see how well this works for a beginner. It doesn't really tell me what to do with my beginning yarn, so I'm just going to wing it, and I'm going to kind of hold onto it as I start to wrap. And I'm going to wrap really tightly. It doesn't really tell me if I should wrap super tight or not, but I'm just going to try wrapping it really tightly, because usually I have a problem with it, with my pom-poms looking nice and neat after I'm done. So, I'm gonna do... Maybe two wraps all the way around, because I don't think one wrap is really going to give me enough body to make it all the way around. So, like that. Close that up. It doesn't tell me what to do with the yarn after I close it either, so I'm just going to cut it and then start on the other side. Because once we're done, we're going to cut right down the center, so I don't think it really matters if we have any tails sticking out, because we're going to cut those also. So, let's do our other side. Looks like they're holding the yarn pretty tightly as they're winding it on the picture. It's nice and tight. Hopefully I'm not making it too thick. But once I make this first one, which is my tester, then I'm gonna play with this for a little bit and try to figure out what's the best practice so that way you guys can learn from my mistakes. Because I would not use yarn that I want to make the pom-pom with for my first try. Make sure you use scrap yarn so that you can get used to making these. Alright, close this down again and cut it. So my next step, it says, is to cut down the center of both sides. So it says use very sharp scissors. See, it looks like it goes nice and easy down the center. It says make sure you don't lose your arms, which are these, because nothing is attached yet. We have to attach it when we're done. And then it says you can use thread or yarn to do the next part. I'm just going to use a piece of my yarn. And it says to take the yarn and go all the way around. So you see how there's like a divot? You're going to go all the way around and double knot that. See if it goes inside of the machine. It kind of pulls it apart. So I'm just pulling it as tight as I can. You can see it's kind of pulled the center apart a little bit because that piece slides really easily in between. I'm double knotting it, which is what it tells me to do. I love to double knot. And then, let's see, let me make sure. I open up my arms, pull it apart. Let's see how it looks. And then once we're done, we're supposed to trim all the extra stuff. Let's see how pom-pom-y I look here. It's not too bad, actually. These little extra bits off. I'm usually, my pom-poms usually look really, um, even, so this one actually looks pretty even. This is my very first pom-pom with the pom-pom maker, and it looks pretty good! Oops, I'm losing pieces of it. It's quite good, I still would clean up a little bit more, but that looks really good. I'm gonna do a couple more and see if I can figure out the best way to, um, how many yarn... How many strands and how many times to wrap would be best and I'll come back and tell you and show you some examples in a second. Okay so I've been working with my pom pom maker and I found out a few different things and have some tips and tricks for you for if you want to use this the what I found works best. So all these pom poms were made with this one which is the one and five eighths pom pom maker and you'll see there are three different sizes and three Different looks. I haven't trimmed any of these. These are straight out of the maker From cutting my edges and that's it. So you can see I got very different results. So this first one here That's very big and poofy and very messy looking. What I did was when I was wrapping it. I didn't care I just was going all around. I let the yarn twist and get up on itself and you know Not very neat So what resulted was a very misshapen, poofy looking ball. So then I decided to try three strands, because I figured the three strands would be a lot faster to work with. So I kept them flat, so I kept them a flat line, and then started working around. And what I figured out with the tails is just kind of hold onto it on one end, because once Once you cut everything, it's just going to blend in with the ball. So I kept it nice and flat all the way around, and it's a little difficult with the three strands because you it twists as you're trying to make it flat. And I did about three wraps again and I got a much nicer looking ball. You can see it's a lot less sticking out in certain areas. It's kind of just right where that joint is, right in the middle is where I need to fix it. Then I did this ball and you can see this ball looks really good. I didn't I didn't. I haven't cut any of this yet, so this is just how it came out of the maker. And how I got that was one single strand, and it was actually the fastest. I just did one strand all the way around, and as I would work, I would push it over so they stayed lined up. I didn't try to overlap. Until I got all the way to the end over here, and then I came back around and did, you know, an overlapping, and I did about three or four layers. I really packed it in to where I could still close it easily, and then I just cut up the center, and what I found is also what you can do before you remove it so you don't have to cut the tails while you have your ball, just cut all your tails while it's still in the center. Machine before you pull it out. This is what I ended up with which you can see is Much neater than these other two So the single strand of yarn was my best bet for making the best-looking pom-poms straight out of the machine If you want like a bigger one, I would recommend getting the bigger size Thank machine rather than you know trying to Make it loopier because it's just going to make it kind of messy looking. As you can see, it's going to take a lot to try to clean this one up. Also, another thing you should notice, if you see all of this fuzz underneath, when you're in your machine, what I found, you. I sit there and I kind of just rub it before I release it to get all of the little fuzzies from where I cut the yarn off. Do it over a trash can to help minimize all of this fuzz that falls off. So overall I really like this clover pom-pom machine. I can't wait to try the larger sizes, these are super handy, at first I was really worried because it looked kind of complicated, but once you figure it out and you do a couple of them it's really simple to do. Make sure to try scrap yarn if it's your first time making one, I feel confident enough to use it like with my regular yarn that I may use for a project now, and I only made 4 or four or five of these, so it's really an easy learning curve. If you have one of these and you have a different way of making your pom-poms that turn out really nice, you know, the one strand was my best tip, but if you have a way that makes them really nice, I would love to hear it. Leave us a comment below so that everybody can learn how to use these even better. But thank you for watching.