As The Heel Turns: In Which Count Sockula Rides Again

Count Sockula is seeing daylight for the first time in, well, forever and a half.  Not seeing daylight, exactly, because as we all know CS is a creature of the night, muahahaaa.


But the author of this blog tends to run hot and cold.  One week,, it's just too much to drag out the fountain pens and ink.  Another, sock-knitting seems like rolling boulders uphill.


But recently I had BURNING IDEAS about heels.  As in wanting to re-attempt a certain heel Which Shall Remain Forevermore Nameless---and wanting to attempt my first short-row heel with wraps.  (Which, face it---is scary!!!)


It should be noted that the Count's go-to heels are the Garter Stitch (a la Knitpurl Hunter) and Afterthought.


The Heel That Shall Remain Nameless took for EVER to knit.   And.  It.  Came. Out. Phail.


(Oh, right.  The fountain pens.  Just a reminder that Dr. inkenstein waits in the wings.)


Both pair were done on size 7 needles and Red Heart scraps because this had to be fast.  The blue pair were done from the toe up.


Sock pair One.  Nameless Heel Attempt That Phailed.

Nameless Heel was awful.  As awful as the first couple times it was attempted.  The worst heel ever.  Just an ugly little bump, and I even stole stitches from the instep so it wouldn't be just an ugly little bump but a real heel.

And the socks were TOO SHORT.  That was a first. 

So I tinked it back RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF A PARTY.  And just tossed in an Afterthought Heel!  How's that for socksmanship?  

The other sock in the pair got an Afterthought in the first place.  As it should have.


Sock Rescue One.  Success. 


Now onto the second pair.  This was bee-in-bonnet time.  The Count wanted to see if an Afterthought could be done with Garter Stitch.  And it can!  As you can see here.


Sock Pair Two, each sock with different heel type:

GS Afterthought on the left.  Short-row wrap on right. 

But you know, it's SOOO much trouble to knit.  The whole.  Sock.  When you are just really burning to try that heel. 

So I did a provisional cast-on.   Muahahaaaaa!   And it worked.  Knitted a few rounds, then dove right into the heel.  So basically the heel of each sock was worked as if toe-up.  And then, the provisional cast-on was removed, stitches picked up, and the foot and toe worked as if top-down.

Simple!  Kinda sorta. 


OK, got into a little trouble with the short-row in that I forgot to slip the first stitch and then had to get myself out of it using a double-wrap technique.  But it's a sock.  It worked.  It fits.

Unlike Certain Heels We Could Mention!

Got a heel type you want to try but don't want to wait forever to get to the good part?  Attempt a provisional cast-on.  If you like how the heel comes out, go ahead and work the rest of the foot.

Maybe this Tragic Tail of Sock Phail will help you in some way.  In any case if you ever have a Heel Idea burning a hole in your pocket, try a provisional cast-on.

Coming soon:  Dr. Inkenstein returns with Three Jolly Sailormen.

Mismatch! In which Count Sockula knits more dishcloth socks

Just a lightning entry here from the Count, because I wanted to experiment with two different kinds of double-wrap, no pick-up short-row heels.

One is the garter stitch heel, ably demonstrated by  KnitPurlHunter   -- this type of heel, double-wrapping but NOT picking up the wraps--- works so well that the Count might use it to exclusion in all socks.  Instead of KPH's clicker, though, Count Sockula employs stitch markers to mark the unworked center stitches.


The other heel is the Count's own harebrained scheme: why not do the same thing of not picking up wraps,  but only use stockinette stitch!  Muahahaaaa!

And it worked.  Sort of.

Count Sockula was presented with a nice stockinette stitch heel that looked perfect on the left side of the heel (when the heel is facing the Count), but some not-insurmountable gaps on the right side.  This may have to do with stitch tension.  We shall see.

And because I wanted two different color socks, but a single yarn ball for each, I picked some Sugar 'n' Cream self-striping cotton.  Top-down, 36 stitches, worked on #4 needles for the K1 P1 cuff, switched to #6 for the heel and foot.  It's likely that for future dishcloth sockies, I will switch back to the smaller needle to work the heel.

Behold!  Cousins, all the way.  The coral-toned sock with the stockinette heel shows some green from an added strand:

Count Sockula is also beginning not to like a very pointy toe.   I pointed the toe because that meant fewer stitches to Kitchener, but meh.   I should have bit the Kitchener bullet and worked the usual 8 stitches per needle, not five.  And decreased every row after a bit, for an even blunter-toe effect.

Yes.  Mystery Sock.  On the way.  Unllikely to be finished until colder weather hits.