FO Friday: About Those Heels Edition

Sorry for the dark photo. I neglected to plan ahead. The other photo is a better representation of the colors of the yarn.

By way of review, these are the socks I’ve been working on for the last two months. Yes, I’m barely just knitting. The yarn is the discontinued Wisdom Yarns Saki Bamboo in the crayon box colorway. The pattern is mostly my standard 64 stitch pattern that I keep in my head but I did try out a new heel. It’s called the Strong heel and it was developed by Gerdine Crawford-Strong. I bought the yarn at Goodwill for $4. It is impossible for me to pass up what I’d consider to be good yarn at that price. Even when the colors aren’t me. Plus I’d never tried this yarn and I’m a sucker for that too.

We’ll start with a little yarn review just so you’ll understand my comments about the heel. I’d consider the yarn to be a fine fingering weight. It’s not super soft but not rough either. It’s somewhere in the middle. The stripes of color were not what I was expecting. They didn’t follow a regular pattern but it wasn’t random either. Had I bothered to take the time I probably could have made matching socks but it would have involved unwinding quite a bit of yarn to compare the stripes.

Now, about that heel. In the photo the leg of the sock is to the right and the foot is to the left. The line of stitches that passed through the maroon stripes is the increases. Because the yarn is so fine and my knitting rather tight there are no visible holes where the stitches are increased. The pattern I used called for a make 1 (m1) increase. I did a m1 right and a m1 left even though the pattern didn’t specify that. The increases went fine and look ok. The line of stitches that run along the orange and green stripes is the heel turn. I followed the pattern as written. It’s ok. I didn’t find it to be any easier or harder than a traditional heel flap and heel turn. Because I knit my socks so they fit tightly the fit is fine. I haven’t tried wearing them in shoes so I can’t say how the heel will wear. I will say that the heel turn stitches seem to be more under the edge of my heel and if you have sensitive feet you might feel them*.

When I first encountered this type of heel I couldn’t picture it in my mind. I expected it to be a set of increases followed by a set of decreased. I didn’t expect a heel turn, the same that is done in a traditional heel flap sock. So really the only change between this and a traditional heel flap is the picking up of stitches. I guess I’d say if you don’t knit socks because of picking up the stitches this method might work for you but I think I’ll stick with my tried and true traditional heel flap.

* I am not linking to the pattern I used. It is linked in a comment on a previous post. There are videos on YouTube that do a better job explaining than the pattern I used. I looked at a few before I turned my second heel but was too lazy to rip out and start again.

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