Making an Ugly Christmas Hat

...or tacky? or maybe you think it's cute, I think what's ugly is just as subjective as what's considered pretty.

It seems like there's been a ongoing trend of Ugly Christmas Sweaters for the past few years, and I thought this year (ahem...last year, this post is coming out a little late) I'd participate in the festivities. I thought maybe if I make my hat festive enough it'd make it harder to see how much the holiday season kills me inside. Unfortunately, I have neither the skill nor the patience (not to mention the yarn) to make a full sweater, so I decided to make a hat instead.

I've made hats on looms before, because fun fact I still don't know how to knit. In past projects I've used two strands of worsted weight yarn as a substitute for bulky weight yarn, the kind recommended for a large gauge loom.
This time I tried something a little different, I used a single strand and did three rows of wrapping instead of two. I got the idea from this video.    

After three rows of wrapping, I used my hook to pull my lowest loops over the top two.

I did 30 rows of knitting like this to create the brim of my hat.

After finishing my brim I switched colors and did 15 rows of burgundy, I alternated colors every 15 rows to create stripes.

After the completing the brim and two stripes, or 60 rows of knitting, I switched from knitting in the round to knitting a flat panel.  

Every 3 rows I reduced the number of pegs I used by 2, one on each side. In hindsight I think I should have reduced every 5 rows instead for a longer more gradually tapered shape of the hat, but in my defense I really had no clue what I was doing.

And here's what winging it looks like! Laying flat it's kind of an odd shape, especially from the side, but once I stitched the back closed it started looking a little bit more like what I was going for...aside from a weird lump in the back.  

You could stop here. Maybe add a pom-pom, and have a pretty cute hat, but I didn't set out to make a "cute" hat. I'm making an Ugly Christmas Sweater...-hat, so I need decorations, and lots of 'em!      

I started with some mossy green yarn I had left over from another project and Boye spool loom (mini review of the Boye looms at the end of the post) I didn't exactly measure how much cording I made, I basically just knit till I ran out of the green yarn I had, but if I had to guess I'd say it was around a yard and a half...ish?  

Next, I made a few flowers following this incredibly helpful video tutorial.

I made three sizes. From the bottom to top: flower loom-10 rows per petal, large cord-7 rows per petal,  small cord 4 rows per petal.

Lastly, I just sewed on my decorations. There wasn't a lot of rhyme or reason to my placement I just knew I kind of wanted my "vine" to spiral up the hat kind of like a tinsel garland on a tree, and the flowers to hang off it like ornaments. My "vine" ended up being a little long so I added in a couple loop de loops to use up the extra length. 

One important tip: be careful not to sew the cord around the hat too tight, or you might loose some of the stretch in your hat. 

My thoughts on the Boye Looms:

I really can't recommend these looms to anyone. The peg design is awful, it's got this hook element that's meant to prevent your yarn from accidentally slipping off, but it's such a pain trying to get your loops off that if you're impatient with it, you can end up shredding your yarn. The pegs are also kind of flexy and flimsy feeling. The Boye looms are just really poorly designed, very frustrating to work with, don't waste your time or your money on them.  

Overall I think the hat turned out okay, very cozy. On another note, I got glasses! I never realized how poor my vision was until I could actually see. Now that I can, part of me prefers the way I saw things before. Ignorance can be bliss sometimes.