Circular Needles

I finished all the scarves and hats I can stand for now and was looking for something new to try that wouldn't be to taxing and scare me off.
I decided my next step should be trying circular needles. I found a 'pattern" for a bag which is really just casting on 96 stitches and knitting until it was the size I wanted. So I cast on and realize there's a lot of space still left on the piece of plastic that joins the two needles. I knit a row, turn it around and knit another row. I'm thinking this isn't right. Isn't one of the purposes of using a circular needle that you don't have to switch it around? You should just be able to continuously knit. So I go to my favorite tutor of all things crafty, YouTube. It really is a great source of information for knitters. You can look up just about anything for knitting on there and there will be an informative video. Ok so I get a video and first off I realize my cord is too long. I search in my bag of circular needles and find a shorter cord, attach the right needles to it's end and proceed to transfer my two or so rows to the shorter set of needles. Add a stitch marker and I'm good to go. Now It's just round and round. Granted, the bottom couple of rows are garter stitch and the rest is stockinette, but it's going to be a bag and that will be at the bottom so it shouldn't be too bad.
My ultimate goal is to do socks. That's what made me pick up the sticks in the first place. I'm now comfortable enough with the basics to move on. Today, circular needles. Tomorrow who knows? Maybe DPNs!! GAH!