Fox Coffee Beanie... finished (but now for Sammy)

So i finally finished this hat yesterday in between class and work (you can see the finished product at Ravelry). The RT section has more of a ribbed look to it than the LT section, which used slipped sts to good effect, but i didn't figure out how to do that with the RT. My current stitch guide is as follows:

LT = sl 2 sts as if to knit, then put them back onto left needle. ktbl of 2nd st (which is really the front of the loop), sl 1st st, drop 2nd st. (hope this makes sense!)
RT = k2tog, k 1st st again
Note: during a section you knit the odd rows, and to not make a jag in the diagonal and keep the pattern true will need to start the pattern one st sooner or later at the end of the k row. i went with sooner on the LT section and later with the RT section so that the beg of the row was at the same place in the brim section and crown section.

This was knit up using 16 rows of knit, which was then folded to make a brim casing, 12 rows of LT (which looked like 6 because of the large slipped sts), 12 rows of RT, and about 20 rows of crown knitting all rows while decreases started around row 8. i placed a marker at the begging of the row and the halfway point.
Decrease pattern: k4sts, ssk, k to 6sts from marker, k2tog, knit 4, slip marker, knit 4, ssk, k to 6 sts from marker, k2tog, knit 4, end of row.

i used a 3 needle bind off after folding the 4 st sections inward and slipping them over the appropriate section sts, but this did not achieve the look that i wanted. The hat wasn't tall enough before the decreases, i should have k 16 rows of the LT and RT sections or gone with 20 row sections instead. The brim section was also uncomfortably loose on me, though it seems to fit Sammy well and she doesn't think it's uncomfortable.

i plan to make this hat again, with bulky yarn most likely, and making adjustments of the brim casing is tighter but the cable section is a bit looser. i REALLY hate this yarn, though it's soft, you can see it's already pilling at the top of the crown in the photos i posted at Ravelry, and i didn't even take the section out (unlike the others, which i had to take out repeatedly, once because i dropped one st at the top of the RT section, which fell to the top of the LT section, and i had no idea how to fix it.