Knitting instructions

I'd heard of using a rectangle to begin a toe up sock but had never seen a pattern, so I came up with my own method. It uses a set of 4 dpns, but could easily be adapted to 5 dpn's if needed.
Knit a rectangle 8 sts wide and 6 rows long (stocking stitch)

1. With ndl 1 k8 (along the 'working' edge of the rectangle),
2. with ndl 2 pickup 4 sts along side of rectangle (ends of the six rows) and 4 more sts from other end (halfway across the cast on edge), on 3rd ndl pick up 4 sts from other end (other half of the cast on edge) and 4 more sts from other side (other end of the 6 rows) - you'll have 8 + 8 + 8 = 24 stitches in total
3. Knit one round even
4Move first 2 sts from ndl 2 and last 2 sts from ndl 3 to your first ndl. You'll have 12 on first ndl and 6 on each of the other ndls (with the picked up sts)
5. On ndl 1 k1 m1 k10 m1 k1, on ndl 2 k1 m1 k5, on ndl 3 k5 m1 k1
6. Work one round even
7. On ndl 1 k1 m1 k12 m1 k1, on ndl 2 k1 m1 k6, on ndl 3 k6 m1 k1
8. Work one round even
9. Continue increasing in this manner til you have the number of sts you need for the foot of the sock

You could change the frequency of the increase rounds, the number of sts picked up, and / or the size of the rectangle if you like.