I'm a newbie

Not really to knitting, but here to this site.
Ive knitted tons of plain hats & scarfs, mittens when the kids were smaller & a bunch of blankets. What I really wanted to learn how to knit was socks. When Michaels fianlly started to carry the yarn, I used my coupons and quickly ended up with a bag of sock yarn.
I tried the pattern that came from one of the peal off patterns for Kroy socks. I realised that it was a pattern that went in circles around the leg. All I wanted was just a plain pair of socks. I figured that I would gradually go into the other stiches.
So here I am now on my second try at 2 different patterns. The one that I'm using now is so much easier than the other 2 that I have tried. I hope I can get it down and have the end result actually look like a pair of scoks. That way I can justify The bag of new yarn ;)