Ugly knit hats provide hope for the masses!
Knitting Daily featured the Champagne Fizz Hat in its free patterns section.

Kristin@37 kicks off the comments:
I love to knit. I will knit practically anything. I will not knit this.

Too foul by far.

Some agree; others decry her negativity and ask where her sense of fun has gone. ShuriuL explains that the hataz are interrogating the hat from the wrong perspective:
Ladies! Everyone's missing the point! This hat was probably inspired by Diane Von Furstenberg's Fall 2009 Ready-To-Wear collection, which had lovely knit sweaters, knit tunics, knit scarves, and knit coats. Every model wore this hat with variations. The pompoms were much bigger and the overall silhouette made the models appear to be wearing hats similar to men's Renaissance hats. This collection was made touching and whimsical when most designers on either side of the Atlantic had chosen to make monotone, aggressive, boxy, conservative clothing that was more masculine and warrior-like than feminine and patterned. It was a seminal collection and spoke of hope, optimism, and fun when last year's collections came out in February and people were more depressed and scared than they are now.

As for me, I just hope I'm not on LynnR@15's gift list:
Oh, aren't some people just too precious for this rough world?

This hat is terrific fun! Not for everyone to knit, or wear. It is a technically simple knit, with plenty of scope in yarns and colour for some individual, creative expression. Daring older people will delight in shocking their stuffy peers and younger people will think it a cool novelty.

I shall knit loads of these for Christmas prezzies, for young and old alike.

Long live eccentric knitting! (Yes, I'm going to shock my peers!)