All of these socks were knitted toe-up with anatomically correct toes. Usually, the gusset stitches are doubled and a toe-up Dutch Heel is used. I measured the width of several of my adult-sized heel flaps and the average was 2" unstretched, and 3" stretched. Now I measure 3" around my heel to make sure I've got the sock instep long enough to fit comfortably. This also helps take some of the guesswork out of knitting socks. I use a crochet bind off, working the knit stitches like I was knitting and the purl stitches as if purling. I took Denise's Cybersocks class from Socknitters when it was originally posted. [long ago in a galaxy...] This method was so intuitive to me that I now only knit socks toe-up. The construction methods I use for my socks are all based on Denise's class.

Also, I'm left handed and after knitting "regular" for a while, worked out knitting clockwise in what's dubbed [according to PGR], Eastern uncrossed. I started with Regina Hurlburt's book Left Handed Knitting and experimented from there. This is something else that was so intuitive, it felt "right".

When converting stitch patterns to in-the-round [ITR], graphs seemed an obvious solution. I've constructed my graphs so they can be read from either the left or the right. Some of the knit/purl combination textures can also be read from either top or bottom. Although the charts are in color, they should print legibly on a black and white printer.