Look at these beautiful tiny stitches and Increases.

Everybody, you should find this very hot.

Redditor kaliena suggests casting on in multiples of four (16 was suggested for larger feet) and then increasing every other round until you have as many stitches as you feel are necessary.

Knitty.com’s socks 101 and socks for dummies (both of which talk about top-down socks) seem to confirm that multiples of four are how toes work.

OH SWEET LORD I HAVE NEVER MADE SOCKS! (It is my next project to learn though!)

I really don't know how to make a sock, but GOOD NEWS! I'm here to research for you!

Let me just put on muh ol' reading glasses...

So just taking a quick look in here and assuming you know basic decreases like slip slip knit (ssk) and knit together(k2tog) lets get cracking. If you are working on DPNs then it's as simple as knitting normally till the end of one needle and k2tog the last two stitches. In most if not all cases you'll just decrease on the last stitch while following the pattern normally until the last two sts. When you get down to say 20 sts and you're ready to close up the toe then slip the sts evenly over 2 needles and use (what they recommend) the kitcheners stitch to sew the toe together.

In summation; we now know that I'm an idiot. I've never made a sock. And in my poor attempt to explain sock shaping to you I might have succeeded?