The Knitting Fiend

Or is it “hell turn”? But enough levity! How do you work the darn thing?

When working a sock toe up, after increasing stitches for a gusset, you must work a heel turn. To do this, the instructions will have you knit across some number of gusset stitches, in my case I knit 15 stitches. Now, for convenience, place those gusset stitches on a string. (Or a stitch holder; I like strings.)

Next, work across the heel stitches; in my case, there were 12. Leave these on the right needle tip. The stitches for the second gusset will now be on the left needle tip. Put those on a second string. Then, for good measure, put the instep stitches on a thrid string. You now have the heel stitches on a needle and all the rest on three separate strings; see figure above right. (It really is convenient to use three strings.)

Now, when working a toe up heel turn, your goals are:

• Make a sort of pointy wedge to go under your heel.
• Increase stitches at the sides of the pointy wedge so it forms a nice cup.

To create the pointy wedge, you work short rows back and forth which will involve working part way across the heel stitches and turning the work before the left needle is empty. To make it form a “cup”, you work increases near the beginning of the row.

The instructions will read something like:

You remember L1B, right? You just did that when working the gusset! It’s a “lift 1 before”, and if you have already forgotten, go back and read about working the gusset.

Do you remember “wrap and turn”? To wrap and turn, when you get to the stitch you want to wrap, you bring the yarn forward as to purl, then slip the stitch purlwise, then take the yarn back as to knit. Now, turn the work. Slip the first stitch (the one you slipped before) purlwise. You will have a loop around the “wrapped” stitch, which was never knit. If you look very carefully at the figure to the left, you’ll see that every other stitch is “wrapped”; the arrows point to the. These help hug it to the other stitches preventing a hole.

You can learn how to pick these up when knitting back over these wrapped stitches, but I ignore them when knitting a sock toe up. Why? Because those end up under the bottom of my heel. No one can see them!

Once you’ve worked a wrap, you will be ready to work the next row. The purl side will be facing.

Ok. First, my sock said “knit 9″. Your sock may have a different number in the directions– it depends on the total number of stitches on your sock. The main thing, is you will knit some number of stitches. Then, even though there will still be stitches on the left tip, wrap a stitch. Oh, but you’re purling, so do this: bring the yarn back as to knit; slip the next stitch purlwise, bring the yarn forward as to purl. Turn the work. Now slip the first stitch purlwise. It’s wrapped.

You are ready to knit the next 2 row.

Notice the 8, which is 1 less than 9? Notice the 7 which is one less than 8? Ok, you now continue to knit short rows, always working 1 less stitch; always increasing near the beginning.

The pattern will tell you went to stop and break the pattern — in my case I had to stop when I reached a row containing knit 4. At that point, the flap looked a little like a “point”. In reality, it’s got a flat spot in the middle, but I would have had to transfer the 4 center stitches to a DPN to show that. So, here it looks like a point.

The combination of working short rows and increases ultimately has the effect of forming a “cup” that hugs your heel, which is, of course, what you want!

Ok, when I finished this, I had to start working the flap. But, I’ll show how tomorrow. I’ve already taken the photos.

Actually, want to know how far I’ve gotten? In real knitting, I’ve got one inch of ribbing left to knit, then I’ll bind off. (Why no sockulator yet? I need to add all the photographs so I can explain what you need to measure to use it. So, logically, the sockulator can’t be published until I finish at least 1 sock!