Oh, missed some earlier messages. No, fishie, I didn't make it to the knitting district. Didn't actually make it into Guadalajara at all, much as I wanted to.
Fishie, I think you're meant to make skeins into balls before you use them (before they get tangled). Some shops have machines to do this for you, or you can wind it up yourself, around your hand. I end up balling up yarn all the time, after frogging, and find it not too hard.
Oh, and miaou, I think wool would be fine, or wool-synthetic, particularly if you're putting a sole on it. Wool is quite slippy, particularly on wooden or tiled floors.
I'm finally reading the issue of Simply Knitting I got ages ago, and it's bugging me less than the other knitting mag. Ok, it's still pretty advertorialish, but at least it seems to have some useful information, which I don't remember the other one having.
Oh, and re: tubular knitting cast ons, I had great success with Montse's second method, which uses lots of YOs.