This is something of an analysis of the heel Judy Gibson uses in her "You're Putting Me On" socks". A formula follows. Because I want this to be generic, I'm basing all the numbers on the number of stitches around the ankle, but as percentages.

Analysis

The main attraction of this heel is that it resembles a French flap heel quite closely, but knit toe-up rather than top-down. This is a great heel for those of us who like the look of the French flap heel, but like to knit hand-painted yarns toe-up. When you knit a French heel, you knit a flap, then you turn the heel by knitting some short rows, then you pick up stitches on the sides of the heel flap and decrease in a gusset until you reach the right number of stitches to go around the foot.

When you knit the Gibson heel, you do these things in reverse order: you need to increase in a gusset until you reach the rigt number of stitches around, then you turn the heel with short rows, then you knit the heel flap, joining it to the stitches on either side of the foot.

So to make the math analysis work, I'll work backwards. As a rule of thumb, the French heel flap is knit on half the stitches around the leg, and for the same number of rows as there are stitches. Because of the way the joining works, with a ssk or p2tog on either side of the heel flap, you need 150% of the leg stitches on the needles before you start the heel.

Now, that extra 50% needs to be there after the heel turn. If you work wrapped short rows down from the increased stitches, you can work each stitch and its wrap to make two stitches. So you want the increased stitches to be 30% of the leg stitches, and short-rowed down to 10%; that way, the 10% of wrapped stitches on either side will turn into 20%, and so 20% + 10% + 20% = 50%, which is the extra stitches you need.

Recipe

So, instructions. Numbers are given in percentages, but for the less abstract, I'm also giving numbers for a sock based on 64 stitches and a sock based on 80 stitches. The math works most cleanly with socks with a multiple of 10 stitches, but you can fudge the numbers if you know what you're doing and you understand the reasoning above. Notice that the 64-stitch numbers aren't precise percentages, but they work out to give the right number of stitches for the heel flap.

Begin the heel where the foot begins to widen for the ankle. The right side of the foot is the start of the round; the first half of the round is the sole, and the second half is the instep. It helps to place markers at both places.

Work the gusset increases as follows, until you have increased to 130% of the stitches you want around the ankle (84, 104): Round 1: k1, lifted increase to the left, knit to 1 before the end of the sole, lifted increase to the right, k1, k across instep. Round 2: knit around.

Knit across the sole 25% of the stitches (16, 20). Judy Gibson recommends putting the center 30% of the stitches on a single needle at this point, if you're using dpns. Then work the center 30% (20, 24) stitches as follows: Row 1: k to 1 before the end, w&t; Row 2: p to 1 before the end, w&t. Work until you have 10% of the stitches (8, 8) unworked in the center, ending with Row 2.

Knit across the center stitches, and when you reach the wrapped stitches, knit the stitch, then knit the wrap. ssk the last wrap with the next stitch.

Turn the work, sl1, purl across, and when you reach the wrapped stitches, purl the stitch, then purl the wrap. p2tog the last wrap with the next stitch.

You will have 50% of the stitches (32, 40) forming the heel flap. Work the heel flap as follows: Row 1: sl1, knit to 1 before the end of the heel flap, ssk the last stitch with the next stitch, turn. Row 2: sl1, purl to 1 before the end of the heel flap, p2tog the last stitch with the next stitch, turn. Repeat Row 1 and Row 2, ending with Row 2, until you have decreased to the right number of stitches on the needles for the leg.

Abbreviations & Techniques

Lifted increase to the left: Pick up the stitch below the first stitch on the left needle, and knit it through the back loop.

Lifted increase to the right: Pick up the stitch two below the first stitch on the right needle (the stitch below the stitch you just knit into), and knit it through the back loop.

w&t (wrap and turn): Bring the yarn to the front (if knitting) or to the back (if purling). Slip the next stitch as if to purl. Bring the yarn to the back (if knitting) or to the front (if purling). Slip the stitch back to the left needle. Turn the work and continue.

This may be a personal record. I finished the first sock of the pair yesterday, which means I knit a sock in sock weight yarn in five days.

(I didn't blog about it then because Wednesday is game night and I was off gaming, and because yesterday was just a bit fraught for other reasons previously mentioned. Things are settling down, and the universe is working out its perversity in ways that I'll probably mention here when they're less up in the air.)

Unfortunately, the digital camera is not cooperating at the moment. I am going to blame the batteries, since it's been flashing a low-battery icon at me; but it's probably operator error. Once the batteries are recharged I'll make another attempt at taking a non-blurry photograph that doesn't reveal too much of the clutter surrounding my knitting nest.

So, capsule review time, since the point of this whole exercise was not just to have a sock at the end of it, but to try a new yarn, a new cast-on technique for toe-up socks, and a new heel construction technique. I'll take these one at a time.

The yarn: I am just as pleased with the colors and patterning of the yarn now that it is knit into a sock as I was when I first saw the hank. The choice of colors and the proportion are great, and match the pictures on the site. The yarn was mostly pleasant to work with, though it was unnervingly splitty. One of the things I like about plain socks is that, aside from the toe and heel shaping and the ribbing, I can mostly knit by touch; what I found with this yarn was that that was dangerous, as I could very easily pick up only 2 or 3 of the plies with the right needle, or catch only 2 or 3 strands of the yarn before pulling it through. I think (I hope) I caught this on the following round each time.

I'm currently in the process of rationalizing the acquisition of similar yarns from Knitivity, though that may need to wait until other issues play themselve out. It's not like I'm in danger of running out of stash in the next few weeks months years.

The Turkish cast-on: I don't think I like this as much as Judy Becker's magic toe-up cast-on; it was more fiddly to work, and didn't produce as nice of a toe. Some of that may just be because it's the first time I tried it, so I may try it on a few more socks.

Judy GIbson's reverse flap heel: This, on the other hand, is @#$%ing brilliant. It is my new favorite heel type. I'm going to meditate on it for a while until I completely understand how the numbers work out, and then make a detailed technique blog post on it.

Stay tuned for photos.

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!

I have been making progress on the Knitivity sock, but nothing worth photographing yet. So I figured I'd start posting some of the recipes I use for making socks.

This is my favorite toe for my own feet; it fits better than any other toe. (The flat toe, which I'll talk about in another post, also fits well.)

First, you need to figure out how many stitches you need to go around the ball of your foot. One of the advantages of some toe techniques is that you can just start knitting and work out as you go how you are going to increase; this isn't one of them.

Now, the hard math part. You need to figure out what numbers to multiply to get that. One number is the number of stitches you'll cast on, and the other number is one more than the number of increase rows you'll work. The number you cast on should be even, and if it's divisible by 4, you can work a round where you increase only half as much. The second number shouldn't be much more than 8 for sock weight yarns, or 6 for DK or worsted weight yarns.

So, for instance, suppose we need 80 stitches around. That's casting on 10, with 7 increase rounds. 10 x 8 = 80.

Or, suppose we need 64 stitches around. That's casting on 8, with 7 increase rounds. 8 x 8 = 64.

Or, suppose we need 48 stitches around, on a DK weight sock. That's casting on 8, working 5 increase rounds. 8 x 6 = 48.

Hopefully you get the picture.

Now, suppose you need 78 stitches. That's casting on 12, with 5 increase rounds (6 x 12 = 72) and one half-increase round (plus 6 stitches).

So you cast on the appropriate number of stitches, using the figure 8 cast on, the magic toe-up cast on, or the Turkish cast on. Then you work 1 round plain, 1 round of *(k1, M1)*.

Then you work 2 rounds plain, 1 round of *(k2, M1)*.

Then you work 3 rounds plain, 1 round of *(k3, M1)*.

Then you work 4 rounds plain, 1 round of *(k4, M1)*.

See the pattern here? You work a number of plain rounds, then one round of k the same number, M1, repeated across.

If you have to work a half-round, you skip every other increase in one of the increase rounds, usually the last one.

And there you have a round toe.

As far as the M1 goes -- I like the raised increase. You can work any increase you like that doesn't make a hole (or, if you want a lacy look, you can work a YO, but I think that would look weird). And if you work a bar increase, you'll get odd bars here and there, but you knew that because that's why it's called a bar increase.

I made a major decision yesterday, and it's one of those decisions where there's no way to know which one will turn out right, so you have to go with your gut instincts. I went back and forth for about a week, thinking yes, thinking no, trying to rationalize what my instincts said. This has left my nerves just a little bit jangly, and making the decision has calmed them down a little, but not much. And on top of it, I had the scratchy sore throat feeling yesterday that shows I'm coming down with a cold. So I've been knitting kind of compulsively.

And the beneficiary has been the first Knitivity sock:

Fortunately, the yarn seems to have forgiven me for my earlier lies to it.

I finally settled on a gauge of 9 stitches per inch on 2mm steel needles. I'm experimenting with more negative ease than I usually use, so I'm knitting this sock on 80 stitches. I cast on 10 stitches with the Turkish cast-on; the instructions given there are for working it on circular needles. It was a bit of a pain on dpns, but I made it work on the second try, and it's easy enough to see how it works. I worked a round toe and got it up to 80 stitches, then knit 50 rounds for the foot. Now I'm ready to start the heel.

The colors in the sock are just as rich but a lot more subdued than I would have thought based on the hank. I like the black and red stripes spiraling up the sock; this is something that Opal Rainforest Zebra and Opal Rainforest Tiger both did, and I liked it when they did it too. The yarn itself is a little bit splitty, which means I can't quite knit by touch; it has a similar feel to Austermann Step in that regard.

So far I'm quite pleased with this yarn. We'll see how the sock continues.

So I finished the Elsinore socks last night, blogged about them, and went to bed. Today I wore them to work, with sandals. (The office is somewhat casual, but in weird ways -- wool socks with sandals are just fine, though.) They were much admired.

But when I got home from work, there was no more lying to the new yarn. It was right there, sitting on top of my knitting bag, watching me as I Kitchenered up the toe. It saw that the needles were no longer being used, and I think it had seen the needle cases in my knitting bag by that point and knew that I had lied to it about only having one set of needles. So I handwaved away its accusations and put it on the swift.

The label is marked "Short - 3.5 oz" -- that's still close enough to 100g, and there's enough there for a pair of socks. I usually knit hand-dyed and self-patterning yarns into socks from the toe up, because it makes it easier to use up the whole yarn. So I split the ball into two smaller balls.

The yarn seems fluffy and splitty -- I separated the plies on one end while I was untying it from the hank. This is a new yarn to me, so a gauge swatch is pretty much required. The label says "Needle Size 1 or 2, 7 stitches per inch" -- I'm going to try with a 2.75mm (US 2) needle first. The yarn looks like it might work well for me with anything from a 2mm to a 3mm yarn, but it's a fluffy yarn, thicker than Opal, so I'm going to try it at the larger size first.

(Incidentally, I really like the colors. Ray at Knitivity had no way of knowing this when he offered me the yarn to try, but I think red and black look great together, and I have a couple of other self-patterning and handpaint yarns with colors like these.)

I'm also planning to try a couple of new things in this sock - a friend highly recommends the Turkish cast-on, and a heel flap construction designed to look just like a top-down sock with a French heel, designed by Judy Gibson and used in her "You're Putting Me On" sock pattern. In the best-case scenario it will be fun; in the worst-case scenario, I'll find out how this yarn handles being ripped out and reknit....

More news as it happens.