Making a pom-pom for a hat

Something I’ve always wanted to know:
How do you actually make a really thick, fluffy, and—most importantly—durable pom-pom for a hat?

Ages ago, I experimented with the “wrap-yarn-around-the-tines-of-a-fork” method. First, wrap the yarn around the prongs, then carefully slide it off, tie it tightly in the middle, and then use scissors to trim the excess ends—and round off the shape a bit with the scissors if needed.

But of course, that tends to result in rather small pom-poms, and they don’t turn out really thick and fluffy either, because a fork’s capacity to hold yarn is rather limited.

What I’d really like—for a child’s hat—is a really big, thick pom-pom, preferably with multiple colors. Four colors were used for the hat, so the pom-pom should, of course, “keep up” in terms of both size and color variety. A tiny little pom-pom just wouldn’t look like much if the hat itself is pretty eye-catching.

I’d appreciate any tips—thanks :)

I found something here
http://youtu.be/7M9Dw4leyjw

As the young man says at the end of the video, it makes sense to use sturdy cardboard rather than just a cereal box, and you’ll also need sharp scissors. But the principle is easy to understand. These should definitely make nice pom-poms.

The method shown in the video works great. Those plastic “pompom makers” are usually unnecessary.