Knitting Tutorial: German or Double Stitch Short Row Heels

Here's a little knitting secret that I would like to share. Once you learn how to knit socks using a short row method, you will likely never make heel flaps or afterthought heels again. They look much neater than heel flaps and there is no need to go back and insert the heel after the rest of the sock is made as in afterthought heels.

At first, the idea of short rows seems a little mysterious, but in my opinion they are easier and actually speed up the sock knitting process.

Five Common Short Row Techniques

• Wrap and Turn
• Yarn Over
• German or Double Stitch
• Japanese or Pinned
• Shadow Wrapped

German Short Rows

Today I'll teach you the German or Double Stitch Method.

	For all short row methods, the heel is worked across half of the sock's stitches. You'll notice my round ends at the center of my heel stitches. I am going to slip my non-heel stitches onto a stitch holder for demonstration purposes, but normally you can just keep them on a spare dpn.
	Row 1 (RS): Knit across to the last heel stitch, turn. Technically this is only half of a row. We'll deal with the other half of the row a little later.
	Row 2 (WS): Slip one stitch,
	pull the working yarn up over the right needle, this brings both loops of the lower stitch over the right needle making a double stitch,
	purl across to the end of the row, turn.
	Row 3: Bring the working yarn to the front of your work to the right of your last stitch, slip one stitch,
	pull the working yarn up over the right needle, again this brings both loops of the lower stitch over the right needle making a double stitch (it doesn't look pretty),
	knit across to the double stitch, turn.
	Row 4: Slip one stitch,
	make a double stitch by pulling the yarn firmly over the top of the right needle,
	purl across to the double stitch, turn.

Repeat Row 3-4 for the required length.

Remember Row 1 was only half a row? Now we need to work the other half.

	Bring the working yarn to the front of your work to the right of your last stitch, slip one stitch, pull the working yarn up over the right needle to make a double stitch and knit to the center of the row.
	For my example I have 6 double stitches on each side of the heel and 6 regular stitches at the center.

Now we need to work the double stitches together.

	Row 5: Knit to the first double stitch,
	knit the strands of the double stitch together,
	knit the strands of the next double stitch together, turn.
	Row 6: Slip one stitch,
	make a double stitch by pulling the yarn firmly over the top of the right needle (it's going to look really messy but don't worry),
	purl to the next double stitch,
	purl the strands of the double stitch together,
	purl the strands of the next double stitch together, turn.
	Row 7: Bring the working yarn to the front of your work to the right of your last stitch, slip one stitch,
	Bring the working yarn up over the right needle to make a double stitch (again, it's going to look messy),
	knit across to the next double stitch,
	knit the strands of the double stitch together, knit the strands of the next double stitch together, turn.
	Row 8: Slip one stitch and bring the working yarn over the right needle to create a double stitch, purl across to the next double stitch,
	purl the strands of the double stitch together, purl the strands of the next double stitch together, turn.

Repeat Row 7-8 until one double stitch remains. There are two ways you can finish up your heel.

	OPTION 1 Row 9: Bring the working yarn to the front of your work to the right of your last stitch, slip one stitch, make a double stitch, knit across to the last double stitch, knit the strands of the double stitch together, turn.
	Row 10: Slip one stitch, purl across to last double stitch, purl the strands of the double stitch together, turn.

Technically Row 5 was only half a row, so we need to work the other half now.

	Slip one stitch and knit to the center of the row. That's it! the heel is complete. I slipped my held stitches back onto a dpn because the rest of the sock is worked in rounds.
	Here's the heel from the side.

OPTION 2

Row 9: Bring the working yarn to the front of your work to the right of your last stitch, slip one stitch, make a double stitch, technically Row 5 was only a half row, so knit to the center of the heel.

You should now have one double stitch on each side of the heel. Instead of working a ROW 10 work a ROUND 10.

Rnd 10: Knit to double stitch, knit the strands of the double stitch together, knit across the held stitches, knit the strands of the next double stitch together, knit to the beginning of the round.

Pro Tip: OPTION 1 is a more traditional technique. I personally prefer OPTION 2 because there is virtually no gap at either side of the heel as you continue to work the rest of your sock in the round.

If you used OPTION 1...

	Once your heel is complete and you continue working in the round you may notice something discouraging . There is a noticeable hole on each side of your sock. Don't panic. It's actually relatively easy to fix.
	If you look at your work closely, there's one strand of yarn that can be lifted and pulled to close the gap. Use a knitting needle to gently lift the strand so the gap disappears.
	Now, I'm holding that lifted strand in my left hand. Gradually you can distribute that strand across the sock by pulling up the next strand over,  and then the next, and then the next, working from the heel towards the center of the sock...
	until the strand that closed the gap is distributed evenly across the sock. Repeat the process to close the gap on the other side of the heel.

Next up, the Japanese or Pinned Method of short row heels which is a little tricky to do at first, but in my opinion makes the neatest and tightest heel.