Toe UP Socks

I've made exactly two toe up socks. Actually neither one of them is done yet but I am past the (short row) heel already. Notice I said socks, not pairs. They are two entirely different pairs of socks. One has been on the needles for about 5 years. It's made of Fixation using DPN's and I JUST HATE KNITTING CUFFS ON DPN'S. I have about an inch to knit on the cuff before I bind off. One of these days I will get out that short circular needle and finish the sock. Then I'll have to make sock TWO. The other one is my Inside Out Sock from the new Rockin Sock Club shipment. After frogging the toe and the heel at least once, I may finally have mastered the garter stitch short row heel & toe. The stockinette short row heel is another story.

Luckily the Sock Madness Mad Cow sock pattern which arrived in my inbox last Saturday morning for the time trial competition gave you the option of knitting toe up or cuff down. I chose to go with my comfort level method and knit cuff down. THEN I came to the short row heel directions. Like others in the competition, I had to go back and check the rules. No changing the pattern! OH NO. I had just recently taken a refresher course on short rows and had completed the heel on the Inside Out Sock the week before, but I still don't really like short row heels. I don't like to do them and I don't like how they fit my foot. I haven't bothered to pursue the adjustment suggestions I've read from other sock knitters because I don't like to do them anyway.

I think the provisional cast on at the ankle, knit down to the toe, then removing the cast on and finishing the sock cuff is the right idea. A lot of my socks have different colored toes because I run out of yarn at the very end of toe two.