
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
German Short Rows
Today I'll teach you the German or Double Stitch Method.Repeat Row 3-4 for the required length.
Remember Row 1 was only half a row? Now we need to work the other half.
Now we need to work the double stitches together.
Repeat Row 7-8 until one double stitch remains. There are two ways you can finish up your heel.
Technically Row 5 was only half a row, so we need to work the other half now.
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...
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.