cwBlog

When we last left our noble adventurer, he was about to begin the sock heel.

When you work an ordinary French heel, you knit the heel flap, then you wrangle some short rows to wind up with a roundish heel, then you pick up stitches on the side, then you work decreases to narrow the sock down for the foot.

When you work the heel from [Judy Gibson's "You're Putting Me On" pattern] (http://tiajudy.com/putmeon.htm), you work increases to widen the sock for the ankle, then you narrow the sole for the heel with ssk and p2tog, then you pick up stitches on the sides of the heel, then you knit the heel flap, joining it to the live stitches that you increased.

So I got through the increases just fine. The pattern uses left-leaning and right-leaning lifted increases along the sole -- the ankle gusset. And I got through the narrowing of the sole right under the heel. But when I got to the point where I was supposed to pick up stitches, I went off the rails. (Remember, sometimes I'm a designer. This is a euphemistic way of saying I can't look at a pattern without feeling the compulsion to change it.)

So I ripped out the part of the sock heel where it narrowed, what Judy Gibson calls the "heel extension." The sock was built on 80 stitches, and there were 12 increase rows, so I had to decrease 24 stitches down to 8, then pick up 15 on each side. Instead, I short-rowed from 24 down to 8, with wraps, as if I were working a short row heel, and then instead of picking up 15, I knit the wrapped stitch and then the wrap. There were 8 wrapped stitches on each side of the center of the heel, which meant that instead of picking up 15 on each side of the heel, I had 16 live stitches on each side of the center of the heel. The difference between 15 and 16 meant that the heel flap would wind up being 2 rows longer, but I didn't think that would be a big problem.

I must admit, I really like the way this sock is turning out. I like knitting toe-up socks in order to make sure I use up all I have of a hand-dyed or self-striping yarn, but I really don't like the way short row heels look with hand-dyed or self-striping yarn, which kind of defeats the purpose. This sock construction technique means I get the best of both worlds -- the heel flap construction and using all the yarn.

I also find myself, to my chagrin, planning my next pair of Knitivity socks. Maybe if I let Himself pick out the color and let him think the socks are for him, he won't give me too much grief about the ever-expanding stash....

(And yes, Himself, I know you read this blog. If you see a color you like, speak up.)

EDIT: This heel construction was recommended to me in the first place by Ariannah Armstrong, a Socknitters list and chat regular, who has a blog at http://ec.lecti.ca/ -- I can't claim all the credit!