Hose Toppers

[fluter]

... and yes, you are over-thinking knitting in the round. I prefer it to flat work.

There are several ways to go in the round. The DPNs aren't that bad.
You could also use a single circular needle of about the size of your project:



Or we can use 2 circulars to knit two socks at a time---here is the beginning of two such pairs:




I have not tried this last one, but a method called "Magic Loop" uses a single long, very flexible circular needle to knit two socks at once.