Im knitting socks and I can't work out how to turn the heel. Can anyone help?

Question

I can knit the stretchy bit at the top, and the tube but have forgotten how to do a heel. I used to know, but have tried lots of times recently and just cannot get it to work. How do you do it?

Answer 1

Hope these sites help.
http://www.knittinggeek.com/howto/chooseheels.htm
http://members.cox.net/e.scott/blog/2004/10/turning-our-heels.html

Answer 2

Example using 56 sts

Don't know how many st's you're using in your sock... this is how I turn a heel when I have 56 sts. Divide in half placing 28 sts on one needle and just leave the instep sts for now. Knit back and forth the heel knitting(on the knit rows a lot of people slip, knit, slip, knit... etc. for a stronger heel) one row and purling the next, slipping each first stitch each row. Work the heel till you have 17 slipped stitches up each side of the heel flap ending with a purl row.

Turning the heel

knit 17sts, ssk, knit1 turn
slip 1, purl 7, p2tog, purl1, turn
slip 1, knit 8, ssk, knit1, turn
slip 1, purl 9, p2tog, purl1, turn

continue till you finish all the remaining stitches on each side ending with a purl side. Then you can turn and knit across and begin picking up your gusset stitches.

This wont work if you have more or less stitches... was just an example.

Here is a great link to use. Has all diff heel types.
http://www.socknitters.com/Tips/heels_by_the_number.htm

hope my answer helps you out.

Answer 3

There are actually lots of different ways to turn a heel, but here's a basic pattern that will work for any top-down sock.

Divide your total # of stitches by 2, and round up to make an even number if neccesary. This is the number of stitches to work your heel. Call this number N. Put N stitches on your working needle & put the remaining stitches on a holder.

Starting on the right side, work the heel flap for N rows in whatever pattern you want -- you can use plain stockinette, narrow rib, or eye-of-partridge, but make sure you are slipping the first stitch on every row. You should finish on a wrong-side row.

Start the heel cup: On right side, knit (N-1) stitches, wrap & turn the last stitch. Next row (wrong side): purl (N-2) stitches, wrap & turn. Continue in this manner, working one less stitch each time, until you have about half the heel stitches wrapped, or a little more for a narrower heel, ending on a wrong side.

Picking up the short rows: On right side, knit across to the first wrapped stitch, pick the stitch & the wrap up & knit them together, turn. On wrong side, purl across to the first wrapped stitch, pick up stitch & wrap & purl them together. Continue in this manner until all the stitches are picked up, ending on wrong side.

Gussets: Return the stitches on the holder to the needle. On each side of the heel flap, pick up & knit the slipped stitches -- you will have N more stitches on your needle than your starting stitch count. Decrease these away every other row by knitting the first two stitches of the gusset together, and the last two stitches of the gusset together. Continue decreasing until you have gotten back down to your original # of stitches, and continue on to the toe.

Good luck!

Answer 4

no but this is something i don't know