A Tale of Two Pom Poms

I really missed the boat with this pom pom thing. I wasn't even close to the size Daughter wanted. When she said big she meant BIG.

 This took some thinking and You Tubing.

 I've done this cardboard thing before so I had an idea of what had to go on but the devil was in the details. After struggling through the first one, I realized it was possible to cut a slit to get the yarn through. Much better.

 This enormous amount of yarn had a lot of spring to it. It took The Mister and I to cut between the cardboard discs without it springing off in a very alarming way.

I took a tip from weaving and used some strong carpet warp to tie the thing together in the middle. I followed that up with yarn so I could sew it on the top of the hat.

 But.....after all that work, that giant pom pom was too big and round for her liking so I ended up ditching the cardboard and just wrapping the yarn around my Kindle, believe it or not, and cutting the loops later to get a more relaxed looking pom pom. I also completely redesigned the hat to make it look more like the one she had sent me a picture of. The one on the left is in Half Linen Stitch with a much flatter top so the pom pom sits down on it better. Goodness, so much drama for a simple little hat.

After all that, I'm still not sure if I am close to an acceptable pattern or pom pom but what I do have is an ever growing pile of pom pom waste and a new found appreciation for the silly things.
Pom poms are hard.