Too Pointy - Musings and Experiments with Short Row Heels

At the time I’m writing this sentence, I’ve knit a total of three short row heels. Not a big sample size, I know, but I have a few thoughts. There are some definite pros to a short row heel:

1. A short row heel takes way less time to knit than a gusset and heel flap.

2. A short row heel, even with a mini-ish gusset, requires way less yarn than a gusset and heel flap.

3. The pattern of self-striping yarns is not completely distorted because there are minimal (or no) increases.

I’ve also come across a few cons for the construction:

1. The method you choose for working the short row is incredibly important so you don’t end up with gaps at every turn.

2. Accommodating a higher instep can be frustrating since you’ll need to add a tiny or mini gusset. How many stitches should that gusset have? When do you start it? That’s no different than working a gusset and heel flap. For me, at least, I’ve knit so many heel flaps, that I can almost do that math in my sleep. For short row heels, I’m still figuring that out.

3. The shape of a standard short row heel (hourglass, yo-yo, whatever you like to call it) is too pointy at the fold where you’d start working longer rows again. Here’s an example to show you what I mean:

A toe-Up hand knit sock with a Short row Heel still on the needles.

Looks like a totally reasonable short row heel. I’m using the shadow wrap method for this one. Now let’s look at it on a foot.

There’s all this extra fabric hanging around. Maybe I could solve this by working more short rows so that the very center of the heel is narrower. Instead of working until about 1/3 of the stitches is left unwrapped in the middle, I’d aim for about 1” of stitches and make the heel deeper. My math for toe-up gusset and heel flaps uses 1” of stitches to know where to end the heel shape. That number works for a gusset and heel flap, so maybe it’ll work for a short row heel too.

A diagram of the Standard Short row Heel SHape on Top and the Short row shape I want to Make.

I didn’t want this pair of socks to linger because than kiddo might out grow them before I can finish. So I decided to solve this too pointy problem by recreating a style of short row heel I’ve seen on some commercial knit socks. Instead of just the two wedges you usually see, like the drawing on the top, I wanted to add a narrow band that sits between the first wedge and the second wedge. The drawing on the bottom shows what that would look like when complete. My hope was that this band would give the short row heel a rounded shape that would hug the heel.

A finished Pair of Hand knit socks with a Modified Shadow Wrap Heel

It took a little bit of trial-and-error to get this added shape to work with a shadow wrap heel, but I finally got that little band in the middle! You can barely tell a difference when the sock is laid flat, but the fit is massively better. The heel is not too pointy and there are no little mouse ears poking out at the sides either. I am thrilled this worked. I have a few other ratios and shapes I’d like to try for this center band, but this is a good first step. I’m looking forward to working on this heel modification a bit more.

On A foot, The modified Shadow Wrap Heel is noticeably More Rounded and Cups The Heel Better.

In the mean time, the kiddo gets to wear these awesome socks. There was a brief period of time where she decided she didn’t like them after they were finished. Ughh. But she’s come around and has actually picked them out to wear for the day without any prodding from me. I’ll call that a win.

The finished hand knit socks with plenty of room to grow into.

The Specs:

Pattern: My in-progress vanilla short row heel sock

Yarn: Adriafil Knitcol - 67

Yardage: 129 yds

Needles: 2.75mm circulars

Dates: December 27, 2022 - January 11, 2023

FO: Kiddo's Socks

The Kiddo does not like wearing socks. If she has any choice in the matter, she’ll pull them off at her earliest convenience and leave them behind/under the nearest piece of furniture. When we’re short socks on laundry day I go check under the crib with a flashlight. Usually turns up at least a pair or two. This wouldn’t be much of a problem if not for cold toddler toes which should really be warm toddler toes. So I finally decided to knit kiddo a pair of wool socks.

I got started and kept right on knitting with the expectation that I’d be pulling these out from under the furniture just like all her other socks. Then she tried them on and surprised the hell out of me by actually liking them! She didn’t pull them off or chuck them under the coffee table. She wore them, walked around in them, and motioned for me to put them on again the next day. When I asked if she wanted mom to make her more socks, she nodded yes and I was positively verklempt. I hadn’t dared hope that she’d like these socks, but she did, and it felt like my heart was going to burst out of chest from happiness. Kiddo can have all the hand knit socks she wants.

She’s also a natural, if wiggly, sock model.

I made these socks long and oversized, which is probably why she likes them. Her feet have plenty of room to grow, and there’s time enough for me to eventually make another pair. The pattern is one of my own making and it uses lots of ribbing to stretch and fit wiggly growing feet.

While I am very happy with how this pair turned out, the pattern is definitely in need of some tweaks. Good thing I have at least one more pair to knit soon, and plenty of stashed leftover sock yarn to work with. This pair only took about 65 yards (60 m, 14g). Then it’ll be time to figure out how to write it for multiple sizes and lengths in a way that’s clear and easy to follow. It’s going to be awhile before the finished pattern sees the light of day, but that’s okay because it gives me more time to work on getting things right.

Sweater Weather

The world outside my windows is covered in falling snow for the third day in a row. All that white stuff is really stacking up so what better thing to do than hunker down inside and cast on for a sweater?

This bright orange number is for the Kiddo and she picked out the color herself when we went to Yarn Fest 2019. The festival was a few months ago, but I can tell she still likes the color because she would not stop staring at it while I knit through breakfast. Maybe the color means she’ll like wearing it more than any of the hats I’ve made her? A mom can dream.

The pattern is In Threes: A Baby Cardigan which has only been in my queue since 2011. I’ve been waiting for the right time to knit it which is apparently right now. The sweater’s simplicity and size make for quick knitting and very noticeable progress. It is also really nice to have something easy to knit during the day when I’m keeping an eye on an inquisitive toddler.

The other reason I started this sweater was because I finally wrote up my Christmas knitting plans. There, I wrote the dreaded words: Christmas knitting. Oh, there they are again. Though, in my case, this end of year dash should probably just be called “Stuff I Want Done Before 2020”. Hmm, not as catchy. There is some holiday knitting on said list, but it’s mostly a bunch of unfinished projects like 70% knit socks or long lingering hats. This sweater made the list because I wanted to knit Kiddo a Fall sweater. Looks like it might be a Winter sweater now though. Guess I better keep knitting.

8 Months Later and Blogging Again!

I have this informal rule when I’m looking for new blogs to follow: If the latest post was 6+ months ago, I’m moving on. So when I realized in October 2018 that it’d been 6 months since I published anything new to my own blog, I was rather frustrated. I did not imagine that my maternity leave would stretch 8 months. Before Mini Me came along I thought that 3-4 months would be enough time for me to get my feet back underneath me (ha!), but it took that long just for me to not feel like a walking zombie. Never mind feeling like a functional human being who could string a sentence together.

When I took this break (which in no way was a break) way back in May 2018, I was also burned out by the whole routine of blogging and writing a newsletter on a weekly basis. I didn’t know if I wanted to come back to blogging or continue to publish knitting designs at all. Even though my maternity leave was twice as long as I expected, it did help me realize that I still wanted to write about and share my knitting. I still wanted to design and share my own knitting patterns. I still wanted to send out a newsletter to connect with people and share beautiful, interesting, fun, and helpful things. So I’m going to keep doing all of those things - just in a different way than before.

My mantra since before Mini Me was born has been “Go with the flow,” and I’m going to stick with it. I’m challenging myself for the next few months to put out a new blog post and newsletter every 2 weeks. I’m hoping that by publishing every 2 weeks instead of 1 week that I can still write detailed posts at a similar quality as I have previously. If that doesn’t work, or just stresses me out, I’ll switch things up again.

My other challenge for this year is to tackle the pile of half-finished designs which are stacked pretty deep. I would like to share at least 1 of them with you in the next few months. Guess I’d better figure out the decreases for that lace hat and update that other hat pattern I never published from 2010.

The one thing I have managed to do is update my website. I’ve updated the homepage and tweaked the overall design. Plus, I’ve got a new logo!

To celebrate my return to blogging and feeling like a functional human being/mom, I’m having a sale on my knitting patterns. Now, January 16th through end of January 31st MST, use the coupon “yayblog” on Ravelry to get 20% off all my patterns.