The Wool Merchant's Daughter

Sorry for the rather obvious headline. My husband had on the local “oldies” station and they played the song of the same title by Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels. Naturally, this launched a debate on who said “Sock it to me” first – Mitch Ryder or the folks on Laugh-In. If you are younger than, oh, say, 45, you’ll probably need to Google that up.

Work not withstanding, I managed to make headway on the blue socks this week. By Friday night, I had knitted the leg the right length and then turned the heel today. Here is the heel flap completed:

Note the center back of the leg. I tapered it slightly into the ankle by decreasing a couple of stitches an inch or so apart. I like doing this so the ankle is not too baggy.

When I knitted my first pair of socks, I had a little trouble figuring out how to turn the heel. I ripped out the first turning row a dozen times until it dawned on me: the stitches that you knit (or purl) together are the one from the previous row you knitted (or purled) together, plus the one you slipped. When you slip the last stitch before turning, it creates a little gap – you need to close the gap by knitting (or purling) two stitches together. Here is the two stitches on the purl row:

And here are the two on the knit row:

You put these two together, work the next stitch, and turn the whole thing around. Slip the first stitch and work the row to the next gap. Close the gap, work the last stitch, turn the whole thing around and do it again. When you have finished only one purl row and one knit row this way, you will see your heel already taking shape:

And once you have worked back and forth the entire width … ta-da! … a heel!

Then, you need to set about getting everything back onto the three needles so you can do the foot. Pick up along one edge:

Knit across the next needle, pick up the other side and halfway across the heel. Put the stitches left over on the heel needle back on needle one and you are ready to go:

The one thing I didn’t like, I’m using a new pair of Hiya Hiya bamboo needles, size 2, and they have already warped. The regular old A.C. Moore Clovers work much better.

Anyway, I’ll try to have this sock done tomorrow!

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 16th, 2010 at 6:49 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.