Pom or No Pom?

Recently I was searching Ravelry for hat patterns that knit up quickly in big bulky yarn.  There are dozens of cute ones (though many are for children) but  the one that caught my eye was this one, Anthropologie Inspired Pom-Pom Hat by Jessica Parsons-Taylor.  She has a seriously cool blog that you really should check out, even if you don't knit (and she shares the link to the original Anthropologie hat that inspired her design)!

Anyway, I didn't have quite the right super bulky yarn that the project called but I took some of our Serenity Farms Millspun Corriedale-Alpaca, held it triple and whipped up the hat in a very short amount of time (just garter stitch and knit flat, how easy/fast is that?)  The giant Pom-Pom took me nearly as long to make as the hat did to knit!  Then I couldn't decide - do I like the hat with the Pom (as above) or without (as below)?

So far the vote has been to add the Pom.  I mean it really does make a plain 'ol garter stitch hat "pop" doesn't it?  But it is a seriously big Pom-Pom - which still needs some trimming/rounding - it actually could pull the hat off a small childs head!

What do you think?   Leave a comment and let me know!  And if you're so inclined be sure to check out the sweet pattern.  I'll be casting on for more, too!