The Knitting Fiend

I worked “heel stitch” to create the heel flap for my hand knit sockUlator sock.

“Heel Stitch” is a dense hard wearing stitch often used to work the heels on hand knit socks. Here are directions to knit heel stitch, assuming you’ve already been knitting and have an even number of stitches on your needle and you are working back and forth in rows:

• Begin with wrong side facing. (This would be the inside of the sock.)
• Row 1: Slip 1, then purl all remaining stitches.
• Row 2: *Slip 1, k1; repeat from *.
• Repeat these two rows.

Note: When you slip, insert the right hand needle tip purlwise.

The right side of the fabric is illustrated to the right with the portion knit in heel stitch inside the green box. It appears similar to stockinette, except that every other stitch will be “tall” stitch that stand out a bit. So, it looks a bit rib like. Unfortunately, I find it difficult to get a photograph that really shows the “ridges” in this multicolor fabric. (A good photographer could probably get a good picture, but I can’t.)

If you knit a sock in a variegated yarn, you’ll also notice the colors will distribute themselves differently in the heel compared to the body of the sock. This is both due to using heel stitch and to the fact that the heel is knit back and forth over half the sock stitches. (You’ll also notice the color distribution looks different in the ribbing. That’s due to the change in the stitch pattern. Just for the record, I think this particular yarn is prettier knit in stockinette than in a fancy pattern. I also think that’s often the case with variegated yarns.)

When you examine the wrong side of the fabric, you’ll see long strands called “floats”; these form when you slip stitches when working the *slip 1, knit 1* row.

It’s often convenient to count rows when working sock heels, and it’s a snap if you use this stitch; just count the floats on the back side. See to the left? I have 13 floats; that means I have worked 26 rows of heel stitch.

By the way, in this photo, it’s obvious the heel was knit back and forth over half the sock stitches; so, right now, the heel is a little rectangle sticking out above the lower part that was knit circular.

You should also be able to see I left the other half of the stitches on a sock needle, wrapped rubber bands around the tips and just stopped knitting over those. You could also put the stitches on a string or an official “real” stitch holder. (The string is the most comfortable option. The sock needle with rubber band saves shifting stitches from holder to needle and back again. Both work; you decide what you like to do.)

My heel flap is done; I’m going to turn the heel now. I’ll try to get some good photos.