Knitting in Tight Quarters

I knit the crown of the Targhee hat while sandwiched in between two other conference attendees in a packed room.  They came in late and sat down while I was knitting.  I figured that they knew what they were getting into and as long as my 10 inch long double pointed needles didn't jab anybody, I could knit on.  So I did.  I was rattled by their nearness, though.  When I got to the very last round of stitches, I found I was one stitch short.  I let the error stand.  I had already ripped out and reknit the decreases twice to get the curve of the crown correct.  I couldn't find a dropped stitch, so I assume I did an extra decrease stitch by accident.

You may question the wisdom of knitting decreases on such long needles when shorter ones would do the job and be much easier to manipulate.  My excuse is that I don't have them.  I have short dpns in sizes 0 to 3, but this hat was knitted on something like size 8.  My thrifty self balks at buying more short needles in larger sizes when I can get by with my long ones.  My extravagant self would rather spend on textile history books and indie-dyed BFL fiber.