Socktoberfest continues…

Last week, I had so much fun reading everyone’s Sock Histories.  I love hearing all the different ways we create the same basic product – one that people have been knitting for hundreds of years!  One of my goals for Socktoberfest was to challenge myself to learn some new sock-knitting techniques.  I decided to tackle Short Row Heels on the Gentleman’s Fancy Socks I’m knitting this month.  In true Zarah fashion, I pretty much winged it.  I knit a pair of baby socks (Better Than Baby Booties) a couple of weeks ago as a short-row warm-up, so I felt like I had the basic idea down.  I just took the principles I gleaned from the baby socks and applied them to this one.  

Also, some of you have asked for the details of how I changed the sock pattern to knit on Size 1s instead of Size 0s, so I’ll go ahead and give you my modifications up it this point.  (Apparently I am not the only one with an irrational fear of Size 0 needles!)  I will also give some details about how I figured out how to modify the pattern, in addition to a short description of my short-row experience.  I’m sure many of you are far more proficient at this than me, but I’ll do my part to help those that are interested. 

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Originally uploaded by kerner. 

First of all, the pattern:  The pattern repeats over 4 stitches, so I need to make sure the number of stitches I use is divisible by 4.  Now, I want to increase the needle size from 0 to 1 and keep the size of the sock the same. 

The pattern is essentially a ribbed sock with no cabling (requiring extra stitches) or lace (requiring fewer stitches).  So I turn to the handy-dandy Universal Sock Pattern and see how many stitches it recommends to use over size 1 needles:  72.  This is divisible by 4, even better!  (If your pattern does’t turn out that way, just add or subtract a couple of sts to get the right number.) 

Next, I take a look back at the original pattern to see if there’s anything else going on I should know about before casting on.  Hmm… typical Nancy Bush pattern, looks like there’s some calf shaping.  I come from a family of scrawny chicken-legged people, so this really isn’t all that important.  Plus, it turns out that the number of sts after calf decreases is the same number I am going to cast on with – so I could follow the heel shapping as written if I wanted to.  I decide not to worry about the calf decreases because the ribbing should keep the sock tight enough around the ankle.

Then, the easy part.  Cast-on, follow the 4-st pattern repeat down to the heel. 

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Originally uploaded by kerner.

Now things get really tricky:  the short rows.  I have read on other blogs that short-row heels are not as deep as heel flap heels, so I knit an extra inch before starting the heel to compensate.  

In the baby sock pattern I practiced with, half of the total stitches are used in the short-row heel construction.  So I knit half of the stitches onto one DPN.  Next, I followed the same directions I used in the baby sock pattern until 1/4 of the total number of stitches in the sock remains between the  "pairs" of stitches created by the yarnovers, then followed the directions to close up the stitches and make the second half of the heel.  It looks pretty good, eh?  I’ve never tried the wrap-and-turn short row method, but I’m pretty sure any variety would work just as well.