Twisted German/ Old Norwegian

Oh, how I love learning a new knitting skill! Thank you, Ravelry, for helping me solve my sock cuff issues.
New skills often come as a solution to a problem. I'm just starting to become a regular sock knitter and being the inquisitive woman that I am, I'm trying some different approaches to construction. I've been frustrated with the tightness of the bind-off on my toe-up socks. Everything else about them I love, but that bind-off is starting to bug me. And if I bind off losely enough to have nice flex to the top of the sock, then it ends up being floppy and sloppy looking.
I'm sure there's a toe-up solution to this (maybe that'll be my next bit of learning: an elastic bind-off) but for now I'm trying out some top-down socks.

A quick search on the Ravelry technique forums points to the Twisted German/ Old Norwegian cast on as the best for socks. A quick search on youtube pulls up this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfFadEumBak
by the knitwitch which clearly demonstrates the techique. (I love the knitwitch! I learned basic crochet stitches from her videos too.)

So I cast on, knit a few rows, and I'm in love.

Here's what it looks like relaxed. See how it pulls in, just like the ribbing? No big floppy loose edge.


And here it is stretched. There is absolutely no strain on the cast-on edge here - I couldn't even feel a difference in tension between the edge and the ribbing.


Fan-freaking-tastic! I did cast on to a needle one size up from what I knit with, but I may try without that extra protection next time since this is so ultra-flexy.

And I can't post about the start of these socks without mentioning this yarn. Dream in Color Smooshy, in Spring Tickle colorway, aka Heaven. It seems less tightly spun than the jitterbug so it's a nice contrast from my last socks. And its ridiculously nice on the hands. And the color? Makes me want to eat the yarn.