My New High-Tech Tool

This is my new favorite gadget for making tassels and pom-poms. Yes, this humble sheet of corrugated cardboard, rescued from an Amazon box some books arrived in; this little piece of detritus just bounced into my mind as the perfect size and shape to make tassels for Frothy:

Sure, I have gadgets a-plenty by Susan Bates, Clover, and everyone else who ever made a knitting notion for tassels and pom-poms.

I hate them all. My pom-poms look anemic and tassels are too much trouble to bother with those.

But this little marvel! Here's a nice fat tassel I first made for Frothy, using 100 strands of the CTH baby mohair bouclé:


So fat it pulled the stitches out of shape when attached. After removing it, I reinforced the bottom points of the scarf; I should have doubled the doubled yarn I think when I knitted it, to make the points stronger.

Here's a shot of the end product tassels on the scarf; these are made of 25 doubled strands and are nice and bouncy on Frothy:


I like that the cardboard has just enough give that I can ease a threaded tapestry needle under all the strands and to slide the captured strands off for cutting. However, a test pom-pom looked anemic. For free, one should not expect perfection. I'll keep looking for a better pom-pom maker.

Just one problem: must keep this gadget away from dampness. Or else, when the next batch of books for college-girl DD#2 comes from Amazon, claim the inserts.