I’ve been working on a bunch of toe-up sock designs lately and since I often get questions about the placement of the increases, I figured I should create a comprehensive answer I can share.
The toe begins with either Judy’s Magic Cast-on or the Turkish Cast-on - something to get an even number of stitches across 2 needles. You could go right into increases here, but I usually knit one round just to establish a base round.
Then, I increase 4 stitches every round (2 on the instep, 2 on the sole) until about 1/3 of the total stitch count is reached. After that, it switches to 4 stitches every other round until the total stitch count is reached.
The placement of the increases is what catches people’s eye. I like to do:
K1, KFB, K to last 3 sts, KFB, K2.
The placement of the KFB isn’t symmetrical, but that is intentional. I want the “purl-bump” second stitch created by the KFB to be symmetrical across the stitches. By placing the KFBs as above, it looks like there are 2 sts on either side of the purl-bump.
Is this a huge deal? Absolutely not. It literally only stands out to me while knitting the sock - once it’s done you can barely tell. But - since I spend so much of the time knitting my projects in addition to wearing them, I do this to make the knitting part feel as satisfying as the wearing part. If you’d rather the KFB itself be symmetrical, moving it over one stitch will not affect your finished sock AT ALL so please feel free to do so!