One from Column A, one from Column B

While you're waiting for the pattern for the heart socks (I swear, I'm knitting as fast as I can), here's a fun little interim project to keep you occupied: make a heel sampler!

Start with a tube, of sufficient diameter to admit your foot.  Knit a smidgeon of ribbing to keep it from rolling, and then an inch or so of stockinette.  Do a heel flap, any one of your choice, and then turn the heel, again with any method of your choice.  Pick up the stitches for the gussets, and do the gusset decreases to return to the diameter you started with.  Now, do another heel flap, possibly a different kind, and turn a different heel, and so forth.  Repeat this with all the heels that are interesting to you, and then finish off with a bit more ribbing, keeping the end of the tube open.  This project will let you pull any of the heels onto your foot -- just scrunch the others out of the way, like a cuff.  You can even try the toe-up flap-and-gusset heels, possibly down toward the end, since you'll want to pull those on from the other direction.  Don't forget to sample the short-row heel, and try out an afterthought type, or even try more than one and use that as a sampling of the different toe styles as well.

This project makes a pretty strange looking finished object, but it's a useful tool, which will let you get a reasonable idea of how various heels will fit your foot, without having to knit half a dozen pairs that aren't a great fit.

Comments

[Loretta]

Wow! What a great idea! I've got the half-dozen so-so pairs of socks and keep looking for "the perfect heel." I've done the eye of partridge flap but not with your technique and not coupled with a Dutch heel. Anxious for the upcoming installments!

[zee]

Hmm. This sounds interesting. I think I'm going to try this, too. :)

Thanks!