Maybe I'm not meant to knit socks?

It's the last week of Socktober and thought I'd churn out some socks this month. I even bought a couple new skeins of sock yarn to get myself motivated. I taught myself how to make 2 socks on 2 circular needles cuff down. I would have a finished pair now but I decided to get fancy. I got to the heel and decided to use Cat Bordhi's method. I failed so miserably I needed to frog the whole thing. Back to the sock drawing board. =(

I picked myself up and bought this lovely orange skein from Hazel Knits. This was meant to be made into a cushy pair of fall weather socks. It will go perfect with my black clog Danskos. I originally wanted to use the Firestarter pattern because I wanted to do a toe up sock this time and I just learned how to do Judy's Magic Cast-On. Then I read feedback from people who have worked on theirs and I wasn't enthusiastic anymore because of all the trouble some people were having. I'm a newbie sock knitter so any pattern that has a ton of errata or mistakes I wouldn't catch on my own won't work for me. I did attempt it but didn't get far so I frogged the little bit I knit.

So I found a pattern called Express Lane. It's a toe up pattern also. I used the magic cast-on
instead of the provisional cast-on it called for. I get to Row 1 and I'm stuck....I don't get the instructions. I'm pretty sure that the instructions the pattern gives and the magic cast-on don't mesh and I got lost. I tried to figure it out on my own for HOURS. It shouldn't be this difficult! It's just knitting!!! I gave up and turned to the people of Ravelry to help me out. I posted my dilemma last night and went to bed. By this morning I had 3 different responses! Hallelujah! Ravelry is awesome. Can't wait to get home and finally make myself some freakin' socks. I may not be able to finish a pair but I should at least get one sock started correctly.