Hi Beth, stinky sock smell is pretty typical at the beginning. The smell usually doesn't even out for a week or longer. If you measure by volume rather than weight, then it's very likely that a little extra flour is making its way in simply because flour naturally packs itself into measuring cups so it would make your starter thicker so it wouldn't bubble as much. Ideally, we recommend measuring everything by weight. If you prefer not to measure by weight with a scale, the most accurate way to measure your flour is to use the fluff, sprinkle, scrape method which should give you results that look more similar to the starter in this article. Feel free to add a little water to start thinning it out now to be like a thick pancake batter consistency. Since this blog is several years old, we highly encourage you to use our complete Sourdough Guide which is newly updated and includes an FAQ's section and helpful videos. 

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