Trials and Tribulations of Knitting

It would help the completion of my first knitting project if I could get the darn thing started. I've unraveled Alex's hat at least six times now . . . though I'm getting better at putting the project back on the needles. This last time, I noticed the pattern wasn't building properly (I'm working on knit two, purl two - which will make sense to knitters. For the rest of you - just imagine the pattern has to go 2 -2 - 2- 2). On a hunch, I counted my stitches before I unraveled it . . . and I had 87 stitches. Hint: odd numbers are not happy for an even pattern. ::sigh::