I am really in sock mode right now, maybe just longing for short projects after all the sweater knitting at Christmas! I’ve only done the usual heel (knit flap, turn, pick up along gusset) but recently saw instructions for short row heels, very intriguing! Does anyone prefer these to the usual heel instructions one sees? Pros, cons?
Favorite sock heels
I’ve done the short row heel and prefer the heel flap. I found the short row heel to be very loose (maybe good for someone with really wide heels) and not as sturdy. It looks like a heel from a factory made sock, but it seems sort of wimpy. I’m going to try it again on some socks for my son, but use fewer stitches to start with and see if that makes a difference. The pattern I see most often calls for using half the stitches from the ankle to make the heel. I will admit that it knits up much quicker than a heel flap.
That method sounds pretty interesting… what’s the difference between that and a heel flap?
Shortrow heels don’t fit as well, but they are good for when you’re working on a patterned sock. You can add the heel without much thought to how to fit it into your design. For example, my celtic spiral socks have a shortrow heel. See how the pattern is continued smoothly before and after the heel? Try that with a heelflap heel! 
I just completed my first shortrow heel, from the GMS Maureen Socks pattern. I have to say, it fit a bit odd - seemed smaller than the factory sock, but I suspect that was due to human error - I was probably knitting more tightly at that point than I should have. There were also gaps on the edge of the short rows - it made an almost openwork pattern diagonally. I followed the instructions, so I’m thinking it must just have been an issue of tension that I need more practice with to overcome.
Apart from that, I really enjoyed working on the short row heel. I like the smoothness of the transition, and knowing that my colorwork will not be tweaked by insertion of a chunky common heel.
Is that sock from your tutorial for cuff down socks, or is it a toe up? I’d love to do a design like that! 
I’m pretty sure the toe up sock I did was short row…
OK, tried the short row heel on my current sock, it was fun to do, but I didn’t really liked the way it looked. Maybe it was the yarn or this particular sock pattern (yarn is DK weight, so its a sort of chunky sock). Anyway, thanks for the input guys! Silver, that is one extremely beautiful sock!
I don’t like the short-row heel b/c of the holes and general funkiness. I prefer the rounded heel and use it exclusively. (It’s made with the heel flap.)
They were knit cuff down. They’re similar to the tutorial socks, except the heel, and the fact that they start with 96 stitches. I didn’t use a sock pattern though, just a graph of the celtic spiral, which repeats 4 times around the sock. They were a lot of fun to knit!!
I’ve been afraid to knit any socks not following Silver’s tutorial, so my self-striping ones are looking kind of…off. I don’t mind this pair too much, since it’s only my third and I’m still considering it practice. :rollseyes: But I think I want to learn how to do the “afterthought” heel I saw on a KnitPicks pattern for my other pair of self-striping. Unfortunately, I think that pattern is toe-up and I don’t even want to touch that cast on!
I want to try the afterthought heel, too! And I am also scared of that wonky toe-up cast-on. DPNs have a life of their own anyway during the first few rows, so I do not even want to imagine toe-up madness! :shock:
I think if I could find a pattern for toe-up that had more than one tiny little diagram of the cast on, I’d try it. :rollseyes: We should start a toe-up sock KAL. :roflhard:
I really want to learn soon, though, because I have all this pretty brown and orange sock yarn to make knee socks and I feel like I want to do that toe-up so I don’t have to have a length in mind when I start them.
I’m game for a toe-up sock KAL! I’ve got oodles of yarn just begging me to make socks with it. It would make for a nice Tubey distraction, too!
And yeah, the drawing of a squiggle of yarn around two dpns doesn’t do much for me, either…