Variegated hat
Changed colors each round.
Used a smaller hook than pattern calls for, but it’s still quite large -- fits Alex. He wanted it until I told him it’s a girl hat.

2nd hat
Used smaller hook again.
I’m eliminating R8 altogether. That’s just a couple of stitches, but hopefully it’ll be enough to tell a difference in the size. Rounds 10-14 (in my case they’d be 9-13) have only 24 clusters (not 26).
There are increases on R15 (R14 for me), R19 (R18 for me), and R21 (R20 for me). I’ll have to make adjustments to the stitch counts to determine where the increases are.

UPDATE: Since I’m using ILTC only on the 2nd hat, I found that I didn’t need to eliminate rounds or increases. I followed the pattern exactly, except for turning after every round (I like that look, plus I don’t like to slst into stitches). It’s a perfect fit.