Slippery DPN's and CAY

Bored of my knit, purl for eternity blanket, I attempted to learn knitting "in the round" with metal double pointed needles and cheap-ass yarn purchased at Joann's. Mistake #1 was thinking I could master this technique in a weekend (ha, ha), then I went and purchased slick metal dpn's and the CAY which was filled with breaks and 4 ply that mysteriously shrunk to 1 ply and then back again to 4 ply. I ended up frogging 4 failed sock attempts before giving up. Tell me again, folks, all the stress reducing benefits of knitting?!

On the plus side I did successfully learn the long tail cast-on and managed to knit one little pinky ring/warmer in the round. I also discovered some helpful videos at Knittinghelp.com so the weekend wasn't a total wash out.