Make 1 Short Row Heel

Well, the blog has been very neglected lately!!!!! Between Christmas knitting, work, holidays, and more work, computer time has been to a minimum. Knitting however has not been! I have taken my Rambler sock and actually developed it into a pattern called Twister. Even more exciting is that it is this months Sock of the Month at Twist! It will soon be available as a free pattern on Ravelry as well! So here is Twister!

With this sock, one of the things that I did, that took the most time, and working out the wording kinks is my heel. I did my own short-row heel. I worked really hard to simplify it. There are no wrap & turns or yarn overs, and you don't count the stitches in the middle, only the stitches on the ends.

Here is a tutorial on how to make the Make-1 Short row heel. This heel can be used in any sock toe-up or cuff down. It is a short heel, so in order to fit in your shoe better, you need to do some plain knit stitches on the heel side of your foot, continuing the pattern on the instep if you desire. I have used this on my girls and knit about 1/2 inch, and for me, I knit about 1 inch extra. You then get to find the Key Number. The Key Number is the number of heel stitches divided by 4; the whole number will be the number of stitches left unworked on each end. In my example, there are 22 heel stitches, divided by 4, the whole number is 5, so my key number is 5.

The first half of the heel is:

Row 1 (RS): S1, K to end, turn

Row 2 (WS): S1, P to end, turn

Row 3: S1, K until 1 stitch left unworked, turn

Row 4: S1, P until 1 stitch left unworked, turn

Row 5: S1, K until 2 stitches left unworked, turn

Row 6: S1, P until 2 stitches left unworked, turn

You continue in this manner until you have the Key Number (5 in this case) of stitches left unworked on each side. You will only have 2 needles, but for ease of seeing it, I put the middle, worked stitches on a third needle.

Now you begin the heel turn. This is done with the M1Join(RS) and M1Join(WS) which I will show you step by step.

Row 1 (RS): S1, K to 1 more than Key Number is left (in our example it will be with 6 stitches left on the left needle), S1Kwise (that 6th stitch gets slipped as if to knit)
M1Join(RS):

Pick up the bar between the stitches from front to back with the left needle. I work better with my right needle, so I pick it up with the right needle...

And put it onto the left needle keeping the needle going in from front to back.
Move the slipped stitch from the right needle back to the left needle. Knit the bar together with the previously slipped stitch through the back loop by inserting right needle into back slipped stitch and the bar from right to left

then knit them together (through the back loop)

Turn

Row 2(WS): S1, , P to 1 more than Key Number is left (in our example it will be with 6 stitches left on the left needle), S1 (that 6th stitch gets slipped as if to purl)

Make1Join(WS):

Pick up the bare between stitches from front to back with left needle I work better with my right needle, so I pick it up with the right needle...

And put it onto the left needle keeping the needle going in from front to back.



Move slipped stitch from right needle back to left needle. Purl the bar together with the previously slipped stitch.

Turn.

This process is repeated until all the unworked stitches are worked. The last row of each side, is worked the the bar between the heel and instep stitches. This helps close any gaps that are created when you go back to knitting in the round. My other trick to keeping any gaps closed, and this is mostly from trial and error, is that when you are knitting the first round all the way around the last stitch on the needle, and the first stitch of the next needle, I like to pick up another bar in the gap and knit it together with that first or last stitch. I also try to cross them (on the last stitch of the needle, pick up a bar that is more on the instep side and knit it together with the heel side, the first stitch of the instep needle, pick up a bar that is more on the heel side and knit it together.) I do that on both sides, and I am able to eliminate any holes that might want to naturally occur there.

I hope this helps. If you have any questions, let me know, and I will try to answer them. The goal was to have an easy heel that did not require any wrapping or a lot of counting. And, it still does not produce holes when done twisting the stitches the correct way. I like it, and I hope you do too!