Cinco de Derby party

First, there was this.

Then there was this board that I made for our upcoming racetrack game:

And we're also having a hat contest.

I pretty much made this up by using the following patterns, with a bit of alteration on the hat. Be sure to use a dollar store margarita glass!

Changes I made:

(a) done in worsted yarn
(b) In order to make the hat fit around a margarita glass, I had to make a few alterations:

1. I chained 8 stitches--or whatever goes around the neck of your glass.
2. I did NOT connect the circle, as it was too hard to try to crochet around the neck of the glass. What I ended up doing was following the pattern, but adding an extra stitch (in addition to the usual “2 sts, then 2 in 1 st” sort of instructions) on each edge of the circle opening. This compensated for the curse of the neck. I did this for 9 rows/until I was able to fit the glass into the slit/hole, then I started crocheting in the round around it.
3. 

Otherwise, I pretty much followed the pattern (still worked with worsted and an H hook), but added some stripes at the base and on the edge. Two red, one green, two red stripes. I used some craft wire and crocheted around it on the edge of the hat pattern, then went around the edge 4 more times without increasing and adding a few more stripes (1 green, 1 red, 1 green) on the edge before finishing with one last yellow row, I used more wire on the last row and crocheted around it again.

Note: do not cut off the wire edge before crocheting--finish it off at the end. Wire may need to be longer than it appears.

For the roses, I used the Basic Rose pattern, and for the leaves I used A Maiden’s Glory. I made 12 leaves in dark green and 12 in medium green, and 16 roses total. 12 for the brim and 4 for the top.

After inserting the margarita glass, I whipstitched around the outside (hard to do otherwise), and ended up sewing the four roses on top together into a loose circle. They aren’t really anchored to the top because with the margarita glass bottom, there’s no easy way to do so.

 
I just sewed the flowers and leaves around the hat and anchored them to the brim.

Here's pictures of the whole game in action. I have no idea why the pictures bleached out so much other than the room being very white light-y, sorry.

I ended up winning the race, huzzah!

 
We're still pondering what to do with the horse.