Looky - something that vaguely resemblesl a how-to. It's about a heel technique that involves no short rows and looks amazing in self-patterning yarns. It's a Forethought Heel, and it makes a nice bull's eye looking sock heel. The Pepto pink waste yarn represents the forethought setup. This is the Rice Crispy Snack Bar of heels. Looks like you slaved for hours...but it's soooo simple.
You just knit along until you reach the point where you wish to start the heel. Knit half of the stitches using a string of waste yarn. The bigger the contrast to the color of your sock yarn, the happier you will be later. In this case, I have a cast on of 48, so I knit 24 sitches. Now, return to the point where you let go of your working yarn to knit in the waste yarn. Resume knitting. (This is what is happening in the photo.)
You can make the heel at any point after you've knit about an inch down from the waste yarn. I like to do forethought heels fairly soon thereafter, so I can try the sock on to get the foot size correct. What you do is carefully unzip the waste yarn and gather the resulting stitches on 2 to 4 spare dpns, or a circ. You'll have - in this case - a count of 24 stitches for the upper edge and 23 for the lower edge. (You can cheat that missing stitch in easily when you start the decreases, so not to worry about it at all.) Now make a standard toe. Yup. Proceed exactly as if you were knitting the toe for this sock. Exactly. Work a decrease at each end of the upper and lower sections every other round until you are at half your original amount. (In this case, 12) Then work decreases at each end of both segments until you're at 8 sts per needle. Graft 'em like you do a toe. You'll want to tighen up the join area - you may have little holes on either side, a common occurance with an easy fix.
And do I have a photo of the finished heel? Oh, please. Why are you even asking?
You just knit along until you reach the point where you wish to start the heel. Knit half of the stitches using a string of waste yarn. The bigger the contrast to the color of your sock yarn, the happier you will be later. In this case, I have a cast on of 48, so I knit 24 sitches. Now, return to the point where you let go of your working yarn to knit in the waste yarn. Resume knitting. (This is what is happening in the photo.)
You can make the heel at any point after you've knit about an inch down from the waste yarn. I like to do forethought heels fairly soon thereafter, so I can try the sock on to get the foot size correct. What you do is carefully unzip the waste yarn and gather the resulting stitches on 2 to 4 spare dpns, or a circ. You'll have - in this case - a count of 24 stitches for the upper edge and 23 for the lower edge. (You can cheat that missing stitch in easily when you start the decreases, so not to worry about it at all.) Now make a standard toe. Yup. Proceed exactly as if you were knitting the toe for this sock. Exactly. Work a decrease at each end of the upper and lower sections every other round until you are at half your original amount. (In this case, 12) Then work decreases at each end of both segments until you're at 8 sts per needle. Graft 'em like you do a toe. You'll want to tighen up the join area - you may have little holes on either side, a common occurance with an easy fix.
And do I have a photo of the finished heel? Oh, please. Why are you even asking?
