I finally found a suitable recipient for this hat.
It’s Kivrin! The youngest shop assistant at my LYS.

The beginning is not necessarily hard, it’s just super slow and a bit awkward. (I think it’s worth the momentary fiddliness though.)

After a few rows, if you offset your needles, it’s much easier. I’m using 2 circs and I put the start of the round a few stitches in on needle 1.

I think I have around 50 yards of the handspun stuff. It’s leftover from a pair of mittens. Hopefully it will be enough.
ETA: It is!