The Knitting Fiend

Visitors asked me to describe how to knit short row sock heels. Even though these are really simple to knit, to let you print out just the part you need, I’ll explain in three articles!

Measure foot length from cast on; shown above right. When the foot length matches that indicated by the instructions, place the stitches for the instep on a stitch holder. You will begin to knit “short rows” back and forth over the heel stitches. To totally turn the heel, you will work a set of “decreasing” short rows followed by a set of “increasing” short rows.

Decreasing short rows.
Row 1: Begin knit side facing; knit across row until 1 stitch remains on the left needle tip. You will now “wrap and turn” from the knit side Bring yarn to front (knit side) of work, slip last stitch purlwise. All stitches will be on the right hand needle and work will look as shown above left.

Now, turn the work so the purl side faces you, slip the first stitch purlwise and begin to work across the row.

(Premature advice. If you are learning, I know you have no idea what picking up the wraps means. But, you’ll learn in a minute. I still need to mention this now: if you plan to pick up the wraps later one, pull the yarn firmly to make the wrap actually squeeze the stitch. You will want the length of yarn in the wrap as short as possible. I didn’t wrap extremely firmly because I wanted to take photos of the wraps. If you are not picking up the wraps, then just pull so the wraps aren’t loose, but also don’t distort the wrapped stitch. )

Now, purl across the row until one stitch remains. Slip that stitch purlwise; turn the work so the knit side faces you. Bring the yarn to the front (knit) side of the work. Slip the next stitch.

You’ve wrapped and turned again! That’s it.

Row 3: Work exactly like row 1, except you knit across the row until 2 stitches remain on the left needle. Notice the next stitch is not wrapped, the stitch after it is already wrapped. Now, wrap and turn the unwrapped stitch. (By the way, you never do anything at all with that last wrapped stitch. It just stays on the left needle when you turn. )

Row 4: Just like row 2 except you purl until 2 stitches remain. Wrap and turn the next stitch; notice you are wrapping and turning the last “unwrapped stitch” on the left needle. Once again, you don’t anything at all with the wrapped stitches. They just stay on the left needle.

You are now going to continue in “the pattern established”. That’s all some instructions will say. Yikes!

Other designers will give you hints, and there are several ways they might clue you in. Most often, designers will write the instructions something like this:
Row 5: Knit up to last “unwrapped stitch”; wrap and turn.
Row 6: Purl until last “unwrapped stitch”; wrap and turn.
Repeat rows 5 & 6 until you have _some number__ stitches wrapped when you finish a purl row.

(The number of stitches wrapped depends on the total number of stitches for your heel, and is also a matter of taste. Some people prefer shallower wider heels; some prefer deeper pointier heels. If you like shallow heels, work fewers short rows — this means, stop when there are a larger number of stitches left when you finish a purl row. If you like pointier heels, work more short rows.)

No matter how many short rows you knit, do notice these come in pairs. So, the same number of stitches should be wrapped on the two edges when you finish your last knit and purl rows. Well, at least the same number will be wrapped if you don’t forget to wrap and turn on the final purl row! (It’s easy to forget when you are counting and getting ready to start the “increasing” short rows.)

You’ll notice the work resembles the photo above left, which was taken after I purled my last short row wrapped and turned and knit two stitches in the next row. I stuck the tip of a DPN into a wrap to show how it’s just a loop of yarn around the stitch. This holds the slipped stitch to the final stitch worked and prevents a hole.

Notice also the right side of the knitting seems “slanted”. If, for some reason, you decided to put the work on three needles, you’d notice both edges are slanted. That’s the purpose of short rows; you are adding rows to the center and knitting fewer rows at the edges.

Increasing short rows:
When working short row heels, the instructions will next tell you to knit “increasing” short rows. You will have two options when knitting these:
1) Pick up the wraps to hide them. (Remember I warned you that if you do this, you should wrap the stitches tightly?)
2) Leave the wraps in place. (This is much easier. So, decided whether or not you think hiding the wraps is important.)

The general directions for the increasing short rows are:

Row 1: Slip first stitch. Knit you reach a wrapped stitch. Knit that stitch — either fiddling to hide the wrap or not, as you prefer. Turn.
Row 2: Slip first stitch. Purl until you reach a wrapped stitch. Purl that stitch — either fiddling to hide the wrap or not, as you prefer. Turn.

As you work the increasing short rows, you’ll notice the center of the work begins to fold over on itself. It’s going to create a little pouch that may seem just wrong. After all, likely as not, you were expecting it to turn 90 degrees, and it’s folding flat on itself. Don’t worry, this is correct.

Continue until you work the final wrapped stitch on the purl row. At that point, the sock heel will look as shown above and to the left.

Ok, so how do you fiddle to hide the wrap? I’ll describe that, and a final fiddly operation to avoid big holes on the sides of the heels in my next two articles.