The boyfriend socks pattern calls for a figure-8 cast on. The socks are knit toe up.
I figure, sure, I’ll take the challenge. I’ve never done a toe up sock before, but why not? Querying Figure-8 cast-on
in google gets you plenty of links. Most are for magic loop socks. But some are for dpns.
The top links I learnt from:
My first try was the night I posted about the sock pattern. It was so bad that I couldn’t even keep the yarn on the needles. A total disaster. Looks like I couldn’t do this cast on using continental style.
Second try, I lost a couple of stitches off the ends and there was this huge gap in the middle due to not tightening the loose stitches as suggested by Hello Yarn’s tutorial. I guess there was a reason for that 
Third try, last night, and it was successful. I managed to not lose stitches off the ends with a tip from the Knitty article. The stitches stayed on the needles once I switched to knitting English Style. This time, I managed to start this toe and it’s looking decent. I’m going to move things to 4 needles after I post this and see how much further I can get on.
I’m still not confident that this attempt will work all it’s way to a real start on the sock pattern. I’m finding the colour of the yarn and this way of knitting toe-up is making the knitting quite hard to read. I’m going to have to work really hard at keeping track of where I am in the increase section. So, I’m not surprised if there’s a few more attempts at this before I’m successful.
Seriously, this is the hardest cast on I’ve attempted. And it looks so simple in the photos too.
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I tried the figure 8 cast on and just couldn’t get it. I think if I saw someone do it it would help. I love toe up socks though. I use a crochet cast on with waste yarn, you pull waste yarn over your needle with a hook and end up with stitches on a needle. Then you knit with your sock yarn. The other way is to make a crochet chain with waste yarn and then knit into the crochet loops.
Congratulations! You’ll have to show me one of these days. I did finally find my missing dpns, so I plan to start (and hopefully finish!) some socks.
hmm… From my experience figure 8 cast on make the first row of stitches a bit loose. All my socks knitted so far (only two pairs lol) are toe up with short rows, and I used invisible cast on with waste yarn. That method suitable for both dpn and magic loop.