I’ve been seeing a lot of talk about short row heels versus heel flaps. I think I used a heel flap in the socks I made before but when i went to see what a short row heel looked like, it looked the same as what I did. Can someone explain the basic differences between the two?
I might be totally mixed up and subsequent posters will straighten me out, however…
On a standard top-down sock the heel flap is the rectanglish section knit on half the stitches which covers the back of the heel.
I’ve never heard of “short row heels,” but the short rows come after the heel flap when you make the bottom of the heel part of the sock. The part your heel sits on when you wear the sock.
Susan
A short row heel looks more like a traditional sock heel to me.
Purlwise: Knitting Short Row Heels
Fleegle’s Blog: Search results for short row heel
Here are two references for short row heels. I personally use the "Simple Socks Plain and Fancy"
by Priscilla A. Gibson-Roberts method most frequently. I like the way these heels fit my foot. But there are many others too. The Strong Heel is another one that I learned in a sock knitting class. It’s a good one to use if you have a self-patterning yarn and you want the pattern to continue through the heel area.
Kaidy
so with a heel flap, which[I] is[/I] what I did before, you have to pick up stitches along the edges to connect it back to the sock to make the foot. Do you have to pick up stitches with the short row method?
No, you don’t have to pick up any stitches. The tricky part is knitting or purling three together!
hmm I detest picking up stitches, maybe I’ll try the short row hell next time
Hiya hun,
The method I use for my heels is a short row heel (meaning you only knit part of the row before turning it) and there aren’t any “wraps n turns” no “yarnovers” and definitely no knitting three sts together. I use the “sherman sock method” where you make the heels and toes exactly the same way. It works very well with any knitting method whether it’s dpns or two circs or magic loop. Very easy to adapt to different sizes or yarn weights and very minimal holes on the short rows (one major complaint about short row techniques) Only one thing to really remember when doing this technique is to have a stitch count that is divisible by 4 (the stitches on each side instep or sole have to be an even number). That’s all there really is to it actually.
Here’s the link to the pattern or rather recipe.
http://www.knitlist.com/2002/ToeUpSock.htm