So confused on sock heels!

#1

Can someone clear this up for me?

First I did Silver’s tutorial for cuff down on 4 dpns - NO PROBLEM!
I don’t know what they call that kind of heel.

Next I did Lion Brand’s Knit Child’s Solid Socks. I don’t know what you call this heel either but it had no heel flap, then it had this:

Row 1 WS: P14, sw next st, turn
row 2: K13, sw next st, turn
so on down to 8 sts left, then:

Next row rs: k8 sw, turn
next row: p9 sw turn
so on up to 15 sts.

Ended up with holes in my socks when I did that one. don’t think I did the wrapping right either. So I watched the Cat Bordhi video here:


she tells you how to wrap turn and then how to conceal your wraps. VERY HELPFUL!!!

o.k. so then I go on to this other pattern, still trying to find one I can do so I can knit my kids some socks to match mine.

It is Children’s Slipper Socks Patti Pierce Stone. This heel seems to be like a hybrid of those two. So what is that called?

First you make a heel flap of 12 rows ending on a purl row.

Next you have this:
row 1 K11, wrap next stitch turn
row 2: p6 wrap next stitch, turn
row 3 k7 wrap next stitch turn
row 4 p8 wrap next stitch turn,

so this is totally different than the lion brand ones. You’re not first doing less knits and purls each time, you go right into doing an increasing # of knits/purls each row.

Now, when I pass the wraps am I supposed to be picking them up and knitting them together here? Is it just implied that I do this?

All this is so confusing to me because I’m sort of blindly following along and I have no idea what it’s supposed to look like. I did end up with v’s on both sides and a cupped area, so I had to have done something right, but I think I was supposed to pick up and knit together those wrapped stitches when I passed them over, from the other video’s I watched on short rows by Amy.

Next question: How do I knit a stitch in the gusset corner? I mean, how do I see exactly where to put in the needles to pick up that stitch? Is there any video for that? Is doing that going to help me avoid the holes in my socks? When I did the 2nd one, the lion one, it had holes on both sides and you could see through the sock!

I’m just confused…Maybe I just shouldn’t be trying this on my own but should take a class or something. It’s just that I understood how to do Silvers, I don’t want to take a class that repeats that process. But I don’t even know what these heel types are called so I can ask an intelligent question!

Any help is appreciated here!
Cheryl

#2

I can’t help you much with the name of the heels. I just read your post and think that you should just knit the heel you like most. I’ve been knitting socks for a year or so, and every time I find a “funny looking heel” I just frog that and knit one that i like. For example, right now I’m knitting the campfire socks, and hate that heel, just finish frogging it and going to knit the basic silver’s top-down heel.
Also had no luck with the wrapping! Always end up with holes.
Guess what i mean is that you can easily use a heel that works good for you on any sock.:muah:
i found thissite with different heels.

#3

Those are both short row heels- there are various ways of doing short row heels. Sorry, I can’t help you with ‘which kind’ of short row heels those are… yes, you usually are supposed to pick up the wraps and knit them together with the wrapped stitch, but I think only so that the wrap doesn’t show. Not doing it won’t make your socks fall apart. :slight_smile:

#4

If I switch the heel for instance and do one like Silver teaches on her dpn tutorial, how do I know how many stitches/rows to do for the flap and how many to pick up for a child, since hers is only for an adult size? I wonder if I could follow my other child pattern just for the heel and use their numbers? I don’t see why not.

Thanks for this advice!
Cheryl

#5

I’m not an expert… but I think you can use the number of stitches called for in the pattern, and use any kind of heel you want.

#6

I have the same problem with short row heels, i.e., they always leave holes no matter what I do. So I always do heel flaps and they seem to work fine.

When I change a sock pattern to a flap heel, here’s what I do:

  1. I use 1/2 of the total stitches to work the flap.
  2. I work the flap for the same number of rows as stitches.
  3. When turning the heel (RS),
    [INDENT]A. I knit 60% of the total flap stitches AND NOTE HOW MANY I HAVE LEFT ON THE NEEDLE, then dec1 (k1, s1,psso), k1, turn.
    B. S1, p to within the number of stitches noted above, then p2tog, p1, turn.
    C. S1, k to last stitch, dec1, k1, turn.
    D. Repeat until all stitches are worked.[/INDENT]

After that, pick up stitches on either side of the gusset to equal the same number as originally used in the flap and do your decrease rounds.

I hope this helps. It looks a lot more complicated than it really is, so don’t let it intimidate you. Good Luck!