?Thanks to everyone who left recommendations on inverting heel flap
heels for toe-up socks. There probably are lots of "official"
ways to do it. Leah mentioned one in Gibson-Roberts Ethnic Socks and Stockings. Kathryn says there’s one in Church’s Sensational Socks. Brigid sends us to the KnitSocks Blog.
Emily says just to do a plain old flap heel, as written for cuff-downs,
and Rob points out a totally different approach adapted from Rehfeldt’s
Toe Up Techniques for HandKnit Socks.

You know sometimes there’s a reason to bow to the giants who have gone
before. And sometimes for no reason other than personal
perversity and the joy of fiddling with something on one’s own, there’s
a reason to keep on plugging away despite all the world’s advice to the
contrary. I’ve been feeling contrary.

I worked my heel as described in yesterday’s post. Here’s the result:

I tried it on. It fit, but the sock ended up being too
long. Plus I wasn’t entirely satisfied with the location of the
gusset. it was centered too low on the foot, with too much above. Fabric sort of lumped up on top of the ankle. So in
this aspect at least taking a recommendation from Emily, I ripped my
sock back to about a half-inch below the heel and reknit the thing on
50% of the total stitches. I ended up picking up 15 stitches on
either side of my heel flap.

I like this better. I had thought that not having a heel cup (the
turning the heel bit) that I’d end up with little wings at the corners
of the heel flap. The sock unworn kind of looks that way, but
when worn, everything fills out and no little corners protrude.
Perhaps that’s because my feet are so wide. This particular pair
is a gift, so I’ll have to knit another pair using this heel and give
them a thorough wear testing. I am keeping this heel. (The color on this second photo is closer to Real Life.)

In any case, I’m now up to the ankle part and am about to place the
knit/purl motif I’ve drafted up. It’s a very simple geometric design
based on some rectangles. Thinking on the way knit/purl
patterning looks, I’ll work the foreground in knits, and the background
in purls. I’ll either place it in a stripe of purl that goes
completely around, or box the motif in a purl field. More on this
tomorrow…