#1 square needles required way too much stretching to get to 4 in. (didn’t measure the gauge exactly)

#2 square needles got about 3.5 in. with comfortable stretching, but the fabric looks good

#3 square needles stretched comfortably to 4 in. but the fabric looked too thin.

I think I’ll stick with #2 square DPNs for this project and I’ll just be sure to use a stretchy cast on (like long-tail cast on?)

used a #11 steel crochet hook for the beading

I did a wild guess for the finish date…if I come across the actual date at some point I’ll edit later.