These two hats took me no time at all and were very fun! As I mentioned in http://www.ravelry.com/projects/Darravels/50-50-bar-slouc...
I just got new toys: A Pom-Pom Maker kit and the Knifty Knitter Weaving Tool.

The hats were straight knitting so needed no pattern. The weaving tool made this so fast and smooth a project! I got them both done in a day.

Since the yarn is donated to Hugger Hats and comes from many sources, much of it has no labels on it. These were without labels. All I can say is they are bumpy, bulky yarns. That’s another reason they knitted up fast. And it showed how easy it was to work through the tool. I don’t know if there were instruction on the package for these. But I simply threaded a big yarn needle with the yarn and then sent needle and all through the tool to get started. If only one could slip the yarn in and out of the tool as needed. But it really needs to be on the yarn from the beginning. I guess if one needed to purl and knit such as the garter stitch, you could push the tool up the yarn out of the way until you need it.

I found a regular worsted (Red Heart???) in a beige that matched bits of the hat with the pom-pom. That was my first attempt at the bigger pom-pom. It was so much fun! There is a bit of mess with making pom-poms but using the maker helped make a thicker, stronger ball that I liked better than my other attempts.

This particular kit had only Japanese writing so I went to my go-to instructional site: YouTube and typed in the name of the maker. There were tons of instructions to follow and I got good at it in just a single try. That easy! I’ve tried using my fingers and found it hurt my hands and ended with a mass of yarn all over the place. Then I tried the cardboard card method which was equally a disaster for me. So these makers are my best friend! Now I don’t hate pom-poms. I still don’t want them on my hats, but I think a lot of people really like that little top-knot. So I will try to make some of my hats with these puffy balls.