I made some adjustments to the pattern, including following some ideas borrowed from fellow Raveler knittleywinks-thank you very much for your awesome notes!

I bought cheap chunky yarn and separated & brushed it (lightly) for the hair. For the goggles I changed to black, knit the first row, purled three rows, then knit the fifth row & changed back to purple. It gave it great dimension for a little pop of texture, yay! The eye is completely separate from the hat (which I knit in the round by the way). With the eye I crocheted a white circle & then a much smaller black circle, stitched the black onto the white then used yarn to embroider the purple iris & a touch of white in the pupil for a more adorable cartoonish feel. The grey is just an I-cord, gotta love the I-cord! And voila, my minion was born!