The Adapted Heel on Grandson's Socks

It rained hard for a while yesterday. It brightened up around 4:30 p.m. and we hoped for a sunny day today. Not sure we will see the sun as we had thunder at 9 p.m., the temperature went up to almost 16C or 61F during the night and it is sitting at 4C right now. The wind is blowing and the clouds are in a hurry to get somewhere or to bring something in. We are having a bit of a storm right now. A cross between rain and snow. 

Knitting

I'm jumping right in here as I had a great few hours of knitting yesterday. Watching videos on You Tube helps make the boring parts of the knit go faster but I have to stop when I get to the parts where I am making changes. 

The heel flap on each sock was a real challenge. I read the pattern and did it wrong. Then I did it again and hated the heel. It was flat and no way was it going to hug the human heel and stay up. So four tries later, I had it. My way which is what I wanted. 

The heel is an adapted heel. You have garter stitches on each side of the heel flap. In this case it is 3 stitches on each side. You pick up the little garter stitch bump on the first stitch when you start the gusset. A cool alternative way. My thoughts are how it would look using 2 stitches at each end. 

I usually follow Lucy Neatby's instruction when turning the heel. She has a good method which is pretty much my favorite way of turning the heel. I stepped outside my comfort zone and used the pattern I bought when I first started knitting socks for our grandson. It was a great way to turn a heel that I had never used. Not a huge difference to Lucy Neatby's method but it worked nicely for the number of stitches I had on the needles. 

I had the heels turned on both socks in a half an hour. 

I love how the color cooperated on both socks so there is a lovely splash of orange. 

When I went back to knitting the round to start knitting the gusset, there was no hole where you join the gusset part to the top of the foot except in one spot. I had to big a stitch and I had pulled it across part of the sock to weave it in at a different spot. Lesson learned that I need to make sure the yarn carried across the back is tight on the last row of the heel flap before turning the heel. I will experiment on that.  

I will now knit the gusset until there are the original number of stitches on the sock (56 stitches in these socks). Then comes the mindless knitting until we get to the toe. 

I am glad that I stepped outside of my comfort zone and added the adapted heel to these socks. I am also glad that my experience in knitting socks told me where to change the heel for the better. 

Will I do this heel again? Absolutely. 

Where am I going with sock knitting? I plan on knitting socks for Daughter on a 9" circular needle using Hermoine's Everyday Socks pattern. It has the adapted heel and a simple pattern for the leg and top of the foot. From there I will knit Daughter heavy winter socks using Lucy Neatby's pattern and the adapted heel. 

Grandson will get more socks also and I will knit his on 9" circular needles also. I will do the adapted heel on some of his plus I will work on getting better at knitting the regular heel. Ideas on how to improve that are swirling in my head. 

For those of you who wish to knit Hermoine's Everyday Socks, it is free on Ravelry. You can find a series of YouTube videos to help you knit the socks using a 9" circular needle. I watched the videos. 

The only change I did with the heel flap was to knit only rows 1 and 2 until I had the flap the length I wanted. 

I am very thankful to the lady who showed me this pattern at Fibre Op group at the library. 

Until the next time...............................