About knitting socks.

A lot of this is down to preference. So, I'll try to keep to things that are blanket true.

Cuff to toe can be a little easier, mostly because toe-up socks sometimes involve a very fiddly cast-on, but you can do away with that by doing a short row toe. Then you still have to kitchener at the end, or you can use a toe style that does not require seaming, like a star-toe, a lot like decreases for the crown of a hat.

between circulars and dpns, I'd go with dpns. They're easier to find for most people, in small sizes anyway. Just go to your local mega craft store, they should probably have the SB sock set. With circulars you have to worry about if the cables are flexible enough. ( I might vastly prefer dpns, in every instance, why don't they make long ones anymore?)

wooden versus metal versus plastic needles are always down to who's using them. And while I am moving over to wooden for most things, I think I'll be keeping my metal sock needles. I knit at a tight enough gauge on socks that worrying about my needles slipping out of my knitting becomes completely immaterial.

how to knit them? Find a pattern you like, check for errata/complaints, if more than one find different pattern, check again, ignore part that says for magic loop/for socks on two circs/for dpns (this does not matter especially if you have five needles to your dpn set), proceed to knitting, follow pattern to the letter. Whammo, socks! Hooray!

I find the cuff to toe way easier. Like another person said, the toe-up cast on can be way fiddly, and on top of that, if you don't do it just right...you end up with something that looks like a pointy elf toe. I prefer the DPNS rather than the circular needle...I know, I know, using the DPNS have been described as trying to "wrestle with a porcupine", but really, once you've cast on, re-distributed the stitches (without twisting!) and knit a couple rows - after that, it's a piece of cake. Not so difficult at all and I find people ooh and ahh think I am far more clever than I actually am.

For a first sock I would keep it simple with an interesting yarn that does all the work for you. Maybe something striped, or variegated in some fabulous colours. The other great thing about socks is that you are always working on a different aspect of them, so there is no time to get bored. By the time you are tired of the leg, it's time to work on the heel...by the time the foot gets tedious, why look! There's the toe.

Knitting socks is awesome, have fun!

I prefer cuff-to-toe.

I've knitted them on circs (bought tiny circs online, small enough to knit socks -- you can use the two-circ method, I could never figure it out) before because I was getting tracks using dpns but didn't like doing it that way, most patterns are written for dpns so even with numbered stitch markers to indicate different needles, I got confused which "needle" I was on. I ended up just managing my dpns better and now I stick with the dpns. I actually hate knitting socks, but I make about 5 pairs a year for my husband. He loves them.

It really isn't harder between toe up or cuff down socks. I recommend dpns for people who are beginners at socks, with circulars you need to know the special methods, and it helps if you already know how socks are constructed. Just make sure you know how to do circular knitting with dpns, short row shaping, and picking stitches.