I am having difficult with the length for a cat/rectangle-shaped beanie

I am currently making a beanie which requires the general rectangle shape of a cat beanie, but am having difficulty with the length. For my first attempt, I made one with 89 chains. It fit my head fine, but the top portion was too big and unflattering, so I had to completely frog it ( :( ). Before doing so, with playing around and folding the beanie, I estimated that a removal of 24 stitches would make the beanie a better size. To be safe, I removed 16 stitches only. I now have a small rectangle. Checking how it’d look as the ears (folded it and used stitch markers to “sew them together”), it would be the perfect length if I removed about 4 more stitches. However, the length itself is way too tight around my head, it can barely wrap around me. What should I do? The more chains I’d add, it would fit my head more, but the ears would be big. And the less chains I add, there’s no way the beanie would even fit me but the ears would look great. Would it change if I started from top to bottom rather than bottom to top? Do I do any decreases?
I am unable to do the trick where you sew down/make an indent for the ears since I need the general rectangle shape rather than “cat ears.”