Sock help...heel shaping:-o

Hi

Just having a go at knitting a sock at the next size up using the free Web of Wool pattern and have come to the bit about heel shaping and Im confused - doesnt take much:D Im using 64 stitches - 32 for the heel flap - so for the first row of heel shaping it says

sl 1st, p (half stitches plus 2), p2tog, p1

so does this mean I need to

sl 1, p18, p2tog, p1?

It doesnt seem to follow that for the example given (i.e. a 60 stitch sock you only p16 instead of p17)- so Im confused:S

Please help

LisaH xxx

First of, there's a really good site here about knitting sock heels. The link right at the bottom of the page about short row heels is very useful.

What you've written there does sound right, but I'm just going to double check it... back in a few minutes .

Its not a short row heel - its one with a heel flap:S

Lisah xxx

Its not a short row heel - its one with a heel flap:S

 

Lisah xxx

'Short rows' is just the term used to describe how you'll carry on knitting your heel flap in order to turn it into the cup-shaped heel. When you turn your flat heel flap into the nice curved heel shape, you're knitting in short rows.

I'm just writing an answer to your question. I'll post it in a minute.

Ah I thought short row heels were the ones with no flap - kind of like shop bought socks:)

LisaH xxx

What you wrote was almost correct, and it would still work, but they seem to have done it slightly differently in your pattern.

When you're turning the heel, you usually work around the centre point of the heel flap. So, to use the example of the sock with 30 stitches in the heel flap, the centre point is 15.

So, you would do: Sl 1, p16, p2tog, p1. The sl 1 and the p 16 give 17, which is the centre point of 15, plus the 2 extra stitches.

The reason it isn't: Sl 1, p17, p2tog, p1 is because they've included that first slipped stitch in the count to get to the centre point of 15.

So, for your sock ,with a heel flap of 32 it would be:

Sl1, p17, p2tog, p1. The sl 1 and the p17 give you the centre point of 16, plus the two extra stitches.

Does that make sense?

Thanks thats what I thought it should be - but thats not how it can be interpreted from what they have written:)

LisaH xxx

Thanks thats what I thought it should be - but thats not how it can be interpreted from what they have written:)

 

LisaH xxx

I know! My first instinct was exactly what you wrote, which is why I went to double check. It would have been much easier if they'd just written out the exact number of stitches you're meant to purl.