I found the pattern for this hat around the beginning of August. Coincidentally, my sister-in-law happened to mention she liked "long hats that flop over and have a big pompom on top" around the same time. She also loves Christmas, so of course I had to make this for her. I used Sandnes Garn Sisu sock yarn and 2.25mm needles.
It's hard to see in the photo, but when you first start working the colourwork, the pattern repeat is not one gnome, but two — the foliage around the gnomes' feet is different for each pair of gnomes (there are four in total on the hat). One I got past the belt buckle things got easier, and once I got to the hat they got easier still. The last few rounds, where the snowflake motifs got worked and the crown decreases happened, were the easiest and fastest of all.
This hat took forever, in part because of the complex, asymmetrical patterning, but also in part because I just liked to peck at it and do a few rounds here and there as a break from other things. I did a couple rounds each night in the second half of NaNoWriMo, and in fact finished the hat a few hours after I finished my 50,000 word count. The pattern instructions were clear, and correct right until close to the end — I'm pretty sure the final stitch count for the crown decreases is off. It's not off by much, though, and if you've made it that far, it's no big deal to improvise a little. The instructions seem to be correct, just not the number of stitches given, so if you do what it says to do, you'll be fine.