Puff yer' pompoms

So I knit the final rounds of my PomPom and Tuft Hat this morning and just needed the finishing touch of a big puffy pompom. 

Key words - "big" and "puffy". Big is easy enough, there was about a 1/4 of the ball of Super Bulky yarn left after the knitting was done, but how do you turn this floppy pom in to a fluffy one? 

Steam is the key!

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1. Find a small-ish saucepan - ideally about the same diameter as your pompom. This is because - yeah, steam.. it gets hot. So if the pan is small then your hand will be out of the way of the steam. (note this is NOT a project for kids - not kidding on the steam... ) Fill the pan with a couple of inches of water and heat to boiling.

2. Hold the pompom in the steam coming off the boiling water. You will want to rotate the pompom around to get it evenly heated and fluffed. Your strands may curl up a bit so you will probably need to separate them from each other and then they can be more evenly steamed. 

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3. Have a little patience, when you think you're done, steam it some more. It takes a bit of time. 

4. Trim any super long tails to match the length of the others in the pompom, then... steam some more (the newly cut ends won't be as puffy)

And there you have it! A fully puffed, fluffed and fulled PomPom!

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You'll see on the hats to the left, one pompom is a bit 'tidier' than the other. If you spend a little time separating the strands you can get the pompom more flared. I've opted for a fuller, fatter curlier look in the hat in front.