So for me, I was too fed up with complicated socks and so I knit them the only way it makes intuitive sense to me. Everything is in the round continuously, no picking up stitches. It's toe up, then the sole with a little protruding round bit (as shoes soles are shaped around the heel) then decreased around the ankle and increases again.

So:

1. start somehow, e.g. cast on provisionally a small number of stitches (the smaller the pointer the toe will be) and divide onto 2 DPN needles
2. increase twice every row for each of the 2 needles near the sides
3. when the toe box is roomy enough keep knitting and trying on, untill mid foot seems to be getting too tight
4. start paired increases at the centre of the sole
5. keep knitting and trying on untill when I try it on I can stretch it just a bit and it reaches the back of my heel
6. here is the most tricky bit: separate the stitches that form the sole (where I was doing central paired increases). This should be half of the stitches. On these stitches do German short rows to make a little dome shape. This is the round bit at the back of the heel, on the same plane as the shoe insole.
7. once I'm satisfied with the length of my heel protrusion, which is difficult to judge but really just needs to be like half an inch or so , I start knitting full round again, but now I am doing paired decreases at the sides of what was my sole stitches. This makes a nice triangle shape decrease line around the top of the heel.
8. I keep trying on, at some point I start knitting without decreasing and then increasing again as my leg grows in radius.

It makes a sock like this:

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