Doing Socks for the first time--HELP please

[greenjeans]

Hi, this is my first time to post for any reason. I am attempting to do a sock. I am having difficulty understanding the toe bit.

I've got 16 stitches
P15, take yarn back as if to knit and slip next st, turn, take yarn back to knit and slip st back creating a wrap around base of unworked st.
Next row:
K14, bring yarn forward as if to purl and slip st back. Cont in this way, working one less st on every row until 6 sts remain.

Does this mean there are still 16 loops on the needle? Because later the next thing I have to do is:

P6, sl next st onto RH needle, pick up wrap with LH needle, pass slipped st back. Insert tip of RH needle into st and wrap as if to knit.

This cont. on, can anyone help?

[DorothyDot]

Hi,
Good on you for tackling them socks! Hey, if you got through the heel, the toe is not a big deal. Really!

Perhaps I should tell you the theory behind how you work the toe; then you will understand better.

Usually you start with more like 32 sts on each needle, plus or minus. So you have 1 needle with half the sts on it - 16 sts. The other 16 sts are split between 2 needles - 8 sts and 8 sts. This means that you have half-and-half [this is important; the halves should begin/end at the side of the foot - ie, the base of the little toe and the base of the big toe].

Now you start decreasing, 2 sts at each of the base of the little/big toes. You're shaping the tip here - one of the most comfy things about hand-made socks. Decrease the 2 sts at each base every other row - or, decrease a total of 4 sts every other row.

You decrease down to whatever number your pattern decrees. At this time you slip one of the half-of-the-half needle's stitches onto the other half-of-the-half needle. Now you have 2 needles with the SAME number of sts on each one.

It's time to weave/bind off/finish off the tippy-toe of your sock. Your directions should tell you how to do this; there are several ways, I believe.

Looking at your post, those "wrap" instructions don't make a lot of sense to me, either. Perhaps it's a part of a pattern stitch? or could it be a way to emphasize the flattened effect you get once you start decreasing to the toe tip?

Maybe you could post a picture of what you've done already and/or what the finished sock's supposed to look like?

Hope this long post helps somewhat,
Dot