Double-pointed needles can be pretty awkward, especially in your first few rounds of knitting, or when joining multiple pieces together as in the example here. But you’re right - as you continue knitting in the round, your knitting will start to look more circular and feel more natural.

I know some people like to keep the same number of stitches on each needle, but for myself, I usually just have a stitch marker at the beginning of the round, and use as many needles as feels most comfortable. In the case of the reindeer, after dividing the stitches onto two needles for each foot, I switch to having my stitches all on just three needles once I join them together. That hole in the middle may be stretched a bit for the first couple of rounds, but it will all ease up as you go, and since you’ll sew it up later anyway, it’s not a big deal.

If you’re concerned about having a “stripe” of looser stitches where you switch needles, then it’s good to shift the stitches around the needles as you work, so that the knitting will be even all around in the end.

I’m also wondering, did you have a way that worked best for you in terms of dividing the stitches on your needles? Mine are currently divided onto four, with only six stitches on each “side” needle, but that seems awkward. I feel like when I put more on the sides, though, the middle hole stretches out way too much. So then I tried one needle for each leg front and back…but that is also awkward. They seem to flop everywhere.

Maybe the lesson here is that dpns are just awkward if it’s not a perfectly round shape and I should just keep knitting till I’m higher up and it doesn’t matter so much?