Sunday, June 03, 2007

Short Row Heel--Too Short?

I've turned the first heel on my Sockapalooza socks, and I'm not sure that the heel is deep enough. This is only the 2nd time I've used a short row heel, so I'm not totally sure how high up it should hit--any thoughts on this? Here's how it looks:



sock2

The wraps look fine, and I did add an extra row of wraps, but it seems like it should hit higher. If I start knitting in the round now, I'm worried that it will end up too tight. Any suggestions? If a short row heel won't work, does anyone have a reverse heelflap tutorial to recommend? Please do not say "rip out both feet and try a different pattern"--I don't think I can take it!

I like the way the cables look on the top--here's a better view:


sock1

5 comments:

Petra said...

The pattern looks great and if your pal doesn't have a high instep it might work. Though the cables might give it a pretty tight fit.
I am also working toe-up and as my pal has rather wide feet I guess I will use this tutorial http://tiajudy.com/soxform.htm
I am a few rows short of the heel flap.

Hope that helps
Petra

Debra said...

First of all, what an adorable skirt! Earlier this spring I bought two patterns and fabric for dresses-- and I haven't touched them since. It's much quicker than knitting--but somehow less relaxing. (for me, at least)

The sock. It's looking fantastic-- but the heel... Wow, does it look shallow. Even if your pal does have a regular to low instep, it's still shallow. Did the pattern use just 50% of the sock stitches? (or less? it looks like less.)

I've used Lucy Neatby's garter stitch heel plenty of times-- it uses 60% of the stitches and seems to fit people of all sizes. For a narrower heel, you can just wrap/decrease to a lower numer of stitches- like 8 instead of 12 or 14 before you 'turn' the heel. I also like her double wrap concept. The non-double wraps that I've knit before have resulted in holes...

For a stockinette heel like you're knitting, I use 55 to 60% of the stitches. (Stockinette short-row heels- or boomerang heels [knitting back and forth!] look nicer than garter stitch heels. :)

I'll step down from the soapbox now.

Anonymous said...

I'm not very experienced with SRH so no advice from me.

LavenderSheep said...

I think it looks pretty awesome. Short row heels are typically smaller than heel flaps. It will look a lot better once you have some more work on the cuff done.

Anonymous said...

Well, my solution to this problem is taking more than just 50% stitches for a short-row heel.For example, for a sock of 64 sts. I take 36 stitches for a heel, not 32 sts. It works well for me and my socks are easy to put on. Hope this helps.