Starting Is The Hard Part

I've started the second sock. More accurately, I’ve started the next sock more that six times. The first four times the cast on stitches didn’t go right. When I finially finished a round realize I wasn’t following the pattern. The next issue was not I kept having stitches slip off. I am not sure why by starting a new project is the hardest part of knitting for me. I feel like a frog –rip it, rip it (not my joke ravelry forums call ripping out stitches frogging).
After two days of false starts the sock is underway (I hope). Since I now know I can knit a sock the knitting updates will be less frequent.