UPDATE:Cont Pattern for 5 inches -- Problem, two different stitches in round
 

Hahahahahaha! I have defeated you monkey hat of doom!!!!

You are adorable and fit my son's head perfectly! Hahahahahahahaha!!!

I'm very proud of it. :) I'll try to post pictures in the general knitting forum, but we need to clear out camera first.

Thanks for all the help!!

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Progress on this annoying to knit monkey hat!

I am now approaching crown shaping, though not there yet. I am at the point in the pattern where I am to:

rnd 1, p28, k25, p27
rnd 2, k Cont for five inches

The problem is --- part of the pattern comes out in stockinette (the k25 from the first round) and the rest in garter. My stockinette is a bit looser than the garter, as to be expected. So which do I measure the 5 inches by, or do I adjust my knitting to try to get the stockinette and garter to match up better?

It does seem from the pictures that the garter is supposed to be a bit shorter than the stockinette. It would appear that it evens out in the finishing instructions --- so that makes me inclined to knit to 5 inches in the garter.

Does this even make any sense?

Just measure the 5" overall, after a few rounds the garter st section doesn't pull up all that much. There really shouldn't be that much difference though.

It seems to be a difference of about 3/4 inch. When the garter is relaxed and stretched, it's about a difference of 1/4 inch. I've been good about maintainng even tension in how I hold the yarn throughout this part of the pattern.

Half an inch or so over on the stockinette won't make a lot of difference when the hat is stretched out being worn. It will even out when you're finished.

Perfect! That's what I thought. So I have about 4 inches in the stockinette and 3 /12 in the garter. So, how many more inches should I knit? 1 or 1 1/2?

Go ahead and do an inch and a half. Better to be a bit long than too short.