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
Over the next few posts, I'd like to teach you each of these short row sock heel shaping methods.
Wrap and Turn
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Let's start with the Wrap and Turn Method. Here's the cuff of an ankle sock I am making with worsted weight yarn. 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. |
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Row 1 (RS): Knit across until one stitch remains, wrap and turn.
Technically this is only half of a row. We'll deal with the other half of the row a little later. |
What is a Wrap and Turn?
Wrap and turns are basically the same on both right and wrong side rows.
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Without changing the position of your working yarn, slip one st purlwise from the left needle to the right needle. |
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Bring the working yarn around the side or the slipped stitch from the Wrong Side to the Right Side. |
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Return the slipped stitch to the left needle. |
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Turn your work over to the other side. |
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Bring the working yarn between your needles so it is correctly positioned to work your next stitch. |
Now that you know how to wrap and turn, we’ll continue.
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Row 2 (WS): Purl across until 1 stitch remains, wrap and turn. |
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You now have one wrapped stitch on either end of the heel. |
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Row 3: Knit across to 1 stitch before the wrapped stitch, wrap and turn. |
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See, this isn't that hard. |
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Row 4: Purl across to 1 stitch before the wrapped stitch, wrap and turn. |
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Repeat Row 3-4 for the required length. Remember Row 1 was only half of a row? Now it's time to work another half row by knitting to the center of the heel stitches. For my example I have six wrapped stitches on each side of the heel and six unwrapped stitches between them. |
Next, we need to work the wrapped stitches.
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Row 5: Knit to the first wrapped stitch, (Again, technically this is half of a row and we will work the other half later.) |
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insert the right needle up through the wrap on the Right Side of the work, |
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insert the right needle knitwise into the wrapped stitch, |
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knit the wrap and the wrapped stitch together, |
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wrap and turn. This stitch is now wrapped two times. |
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Row 6: Slip 1 stitch, purl across to the first wrapped stitch, Pro Tip: Slipping the first stitch of this and the following rows is my own personal preference. Most patterns and tutorials using the wrap and turn method have you simply purl or knit across the row. However I find that slipping that first slip creates a slightly firmer join. (There's a comparison photo at the bottom of this tutorial.) |
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insert the right needle up through the wrap on the Right Side of your work, |
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lift the wrap up onto the left needle without twisting it, |
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purl the wrap and stitch together, |
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wrap and turn. This stitch is now wrapped two times. |
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Row 7: Slip 1 stitch, knit across to the double wrapped stitch, |
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insert the right needle up through both wraps on the Right Side of the work, |
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insert the right needle knitwise into the double wrapped stitch, |
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knit the wraps and the stitch together, wrap and turn. |
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Row 8: Slip 1 stitch, purl across to the double wrapped stitch, |
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insert the right needle up through both wraps on the Right Side of your work, |
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lift the wraps up onto the left needle without twisting them, |
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purl the wraps and the stitch together, wrap and turn. |
Repeat Row 7-8 until the last stitch on both sides of the heel is double wrapped. Work Row 7-8 once more omitting the final wrap at the end of each row.
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Row 5 was technically only half a row, so we need to work the other half now. |
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Slip 1 stitch and knit to the center of the heel. That's it! You are done with the short row shaping and your heel is complete. |
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Here's the heel from the side. |
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I slipped my held stitches back onto a dpn, because the rest of the sock is worked in rounds. |
No, you didn't make a mistake!
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Once your heel is complete and you continue working in the round you are going to notice something discouraging. There is a noticeable hole on each side of your sock. Don't panic. It's actually relatively easy to fix. |
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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. |
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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, |
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and then the next, and then the next... Work across the round from the heel towards the center of the sock. |
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As long as you don't pull each stitch too tightly, you should be able to close the gap and distribute the yarn strand before you reach the center of the top of the foot. Close the gap on the other side of the sock in the same way. |
I made two heel samples using the Wrap and Turn Method. They don't look significantly different, but the one on the left uses slipped stitches at the beginning of each row and the right sample doesn't. The joins on the left sample are slightly tighter, which is why I choose to slip that first stitch when I am working the wraps and stitches together.
Using the Wrap and Turn Method is the most common approach in knitting short row sock heels, but it is not necessarily the neatest or even easiest method. In my next post I'll teach you the Yarn Over Method.
