Copy-cat Hat

Last week while hanging out with friends from college, one of them was wearing this cap:

I was fascinated by the color choice and the pattern of the hat. So fascinated that I snapped a pic of the hat. This hat has been floating around in my head all week since then. So yesterday evening I set out to recreate it. I studied the blurry iphone pic and made notes, and counted stitches and made notes. And this is my result:

I like the hat I made, but I'm a bit disappointed that it's not a perfect replica of the original. Where I think it went awry:

• The yarn choice. I used Cascade 220 superwash, the economical powerhouse. I did not really get a good look at the yarn in the original, but based on that above pic, it definitely has a different character.
• Gauge. Maybe with a wash, my hat will relax a bit. We'll see.
• Number of rows between reverse stockinette sections. I counted over and over in that blurry pic and I thought there were only 4 stockinette rows between reverse stockinette sections, but perhaps there should be 5?

I'm going to try again. I used size 6 needles for the band and 8 for the rest of the hat. I'm happy with this. But I might try using size 9 for the bulk of the hat. And I'll try adding in that 5th row in the stockinette sections.