Toe-up socks with the Turkish cast on

 

This is a new skill just learned and it's answered a question or two about how folk get those gorgeous seamless toes to their socks. The Turkish (or eastern) cast on, as beautifully described here: Turkish Cast On Tutorial | Holli Yeoh | Hand Knitting Tutorials 

To start with I found I could only do this cast-on on circular needles (no matter how hard I tried I couldn't stop the loops slipping off a pair of Double Pointed Needles). 

But starting on circular needles, you get this nice little 'mesh' effect of the two rows of stitches meshing together like gnashing teeth, before they disappear entirely as you begin to knit. 

Just like magic!

A Mastodon chum said that her child had anxiety / sensory issues about the seams in socks so this is a perfect way of working a sock toe without running into that issue of sewing up a seam (it's probably also a lot more comfortable to wear). 

I've been trying to knit socks for a while now, and this feels like the breakthrough I need to nail the toe, I just need to work out how to do the rest of it now (including the heel which I've attempted before in previous blog posts but never quite nailed!)