If you still don't get on with the circular needle (I hate them!), you could do the picking up in two halves, starting at the middle top of the hood for the left hand side and the bottom right front for the other side. The three from four thing is just so the border doesn't end up looser than the original and brings it in a bit. Rather than stick to that, you could divide the length into two or more, using pins or stitch markers, and try to pick up the same number from each half.
A way I've used to pick up stitches, rather than the pick up and knit thing is to use a crochet hook to pick up the stitches, bringing your working yarn through the loop you've lifted up with the crochet hook. It's saved my knitting sanity many times. If you can get a coloured crochet hook to contrast with your yarn, it's a lot easier to see too.
This YouTube video will explain it better than I can. You don't need to be able to crochet either- I can't, being as I'm left handed.
Good luck! www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0kUN3UHmCo
