I’m still working on my knitted ponies, but want to try making different poses and I’m wondering if some kind of sock heel technique (as in, decreasing then picking up stitches along both edges…it’s been a long while since I made any socks, so I hope that makes sense!!) would work to help make bends in legs (for knee, fetlock and hock joints when the pony/horse is moving), in conjunction with other shaping.
I’d love to hear any ideas and advice!
Sock making techniques and plush animals
I like the idea of using a heel pattern in miniature to work the horse’s legs. I wonder if short rows would give you enough curve for this?
Short rows could definitely work for bends at the fetlocks or hooves. Bent knees sometimes need sharper angles than short rows might be able to achieve (at least with my still kind of limited experience, but it can depend on the angle of the bend, as well).
If you remember the old My Little Pony toys, I’m thinking about the raised, bent forelegs some of them have (I bought Majesty recently, to help out with my pattern making, and she has a foreleg bent at an angle kind of like the sock heel turn I was trying to describe in my first post. Lol!)
Is this the one? I’d be inclined to try short rows before a flap and pick up stitches. I’m not seeing how the flap would work for the bend you have in mind which isn’t to say I know what I’m talking about. If I did try a flap style heel I think I’d prefer a faux heel flap. I’m going to think about this. If I actually sleep tonight maybe tomorrow I’ll be able to think more clearly. I like your concept and hope you come up with a good solution that I can borrow for future projects.
Yep, that’s her! My question here is, can you achieve bends of around 45 degrees while knitting tubes? I will admit I like short row shaping, but the sheer variability is daunting.
After a lot of experimenting, I managed to make a decent rump shape using short rows, but think I could do better. The pattern for basic spheres/domes that I adapted has plain rows, but my pony rump doesn’t, lol. I might try making a pony using the dome pattern as it is and see how it looks in comparison.
You might check out the sweet tomato heel. It might help you figure out the short rows. I have never used a sweet tomato heel so don’t really know how it’s done.
Ooh, thanks for the idea, @GrumpyGramma! I’ve only done a couple of different heels but they weren’t named in the patterns, so I can’t tell if I’ve done a sweet tomato, either XD
I am thinking that a sweet tomato heel with four wedges (instead of the usual three) would produce a sharper angle. You can work as few or as many wedges as you like.
The only thing would be whether the turn would happen fast enough, or in a short enough number of rows, if you know what I mean.
The advantage of a ST heel compared to a standard short-row heel is that it creates a more rounded shape.
Here is a Ravelry project that shows the shape:
https://www.ravelry.com/projects/Ladyebug/cats-sweet-tomato-heel-socks
(Sorry if you don’t have a Ravelry account, but I couldn’t find a photo elsewhere that illustrated it well.)
I think that when stuffed this could look rather like a knee.
This is quite the challenge you have set yourself!
Good tip, @kushami, thank you! I do indeed have a Ravelry account so I’ll save that for future reference!
This morning I remembered something called a sling heel. I’ll link to the pattern but am not suggesting you buy it, you almost certainly don’t need to even if you would use the heel. There was a free version for something pretty much the same that I saw but I can’t find it now and you really don’t need it either. Basically it’s a short row heel worked all the way to the center front. I think I left a stitch unworked between turns. I would have used GSR but any way you do short rows could be done. I then resolved the turn stitches and ‘short rowed out’ to complete the wedge. (IMO as a heel it’s a fail but as a shaping technique it’s got it’s uses.) If there are no stitches between turns you’ll have more fabric in the wedge, space the turns more and adjust the shape. HTH
ETA I figured out how to find the freebie.
That looks promising, @GrumpyGramma! I’ll make a note of these and do some experiments on my next free day
Good. The technique is the thing. IMHO the heel sucks. Vintage knee warmers show short row shaping that might help you figure out the short rows you need. This one’s been updated, or so it says.