I have a narrow heel and a relatively high instep. This means that a short row heel made with half the total stitches doesn’t fit me. It wobbles around and feels strange. Plus I don’t like the extra straining bits around the front of my ankle. I love the comfort and fit of the cute little cup that a traditional heel flap and turn gives me. So the little * there in the title means that it fits ME better… but that doesn’t necessarily mean it will fit YOU better. But give it a try and tell me what you think.
Step 1: Basics & Calculations
Here you can see the basic parts of the toe-up heel flap. The gussets are worked in the round, then the short rows are worked flat, then the heel is worked back and forth and attached to the remaining gusset stitches, then you go back to working in the round.
We will assume for this example that you are knitting a 64 stitch sock. That means that were you doing a traditional heel flap and turn, you would use 32 stitches for the instep (the front of the sock) and 32 sts for the heel. Generally you would start with these 32 sts and end up with about 22 sts after you turned the heel, then pick up stitches along the heel flap and knit the gusset. But let’s stick with the relevant numbers, 32 sts for instep and heel each and 22 sts for bottom of cup created after heel turn (this part sits RIGHT under your heel).If you want to get REALLY technical, you can figure out how many stitches you normally pick up from the heel flap (n) and calculate thus:
n/(Rows per inch/2)=distance BEFORE heel you want to start gusset increases
For example, for a 64 stitch sock, I would have picked up 13 sts, and my RPI gauge is 12. So 13/6 (which is 12/2)= 2.16″ so I would want to start my gusset increases roughly 2″ before where I want my heel to sit. The dividing row gauge by 2 is because I’m increasing the gusset only every other row, therefore there are half as many increase rows as total rows in an inch of knitting.
Step 2: The Gusset (partially covered in step 1)
In the picture above, you’ll see my roughly 2″ of gusset increases. I’m picky and I use a m1f and m1b so that they mirror each other… but any m1 will do if you’re not so obsessive as I.
Step 3: The Short Rows
Remember that number 22? Yes. We will be working the short rows over 22 sts total. Since I’m working the heel on 2 needles with a third for the working needle (I find there’s less stress on the sts if I split them in half), I will work to the bottom of the foot and then k10 and wrap & turn (w&t) (11 total sts on this side) and then work back purling those 10 sts and then p10 from the other side and w&t. Then continue on wrapping the stitch just before the previously wrapped stitch so that you end up with a shape like this
I wrap stitches until I have 6 sts left unwrapped (3 on each side) in the middle. Then on the next row (right side row) you will pick up and knit all wraps on that side together with the stitches they were wrapping. On a right side row, I prefer to knit them together through the back loop. Then turn, slip the first stitch and purl across until the other side’s wrapped stitches which you will now purl together with the sts they were wrapping.
Step 4: The Flap
Now that you’re done with the cup at the bottom, your rows will all begin with a slipped stitch and end with a joining of the heel flap sts (those 22 sts we calculated before) with the remaining gusset stitches. The beginnings of this can be seen in the picture above. For this sock it means that I would knit until I had decreased those sts back to 32… but I’ll tell you about a little trick later. So we have 22 heel flap sts, but we need to end up with 32 sts total on the back of the sock, right? So you will work the heel flap, attaching it as you go (and decreasing gusset sts in that way) until you have 5 sts on each side of the heel flap unworked (these sts were previously from the gusset).
So here’s the trick to not having holes in the sock where the heel flap ends and the round knitting begins. Leave the last set of those heel flap decreases until you’re working in the round again, so that the first round after the heel flap would have you work the heel flap stitches, then decrease (ssk) knit the 5 sts left from the gusset, knit the instep sts, then knit the 5 sts left from the gusset on the OTHER side, then decrease (k2tog). Voila! A hole-less toe-up heel flap that is snugger and more comfortable (at least for me).
As for me, I am at an impasse on this celtic sock until I can get some serious charting and swatching done, but I’ve started Icarus again, and I’m loving it just as much as the first time I knit it! I’m still amazed that this shawl came off of my needles and out of my brain! I also finally blocked the cashmere scarf and wrap, but I can’t bring myself to send it off until I’ve shown the SnB grrls.
M
You MUST go see Lucinda‘s finished Hidcote Garden shawl! It’s just beautiful!
And don’t miss Donna‘s finished Icarus! She knit it in Misti Alpaca, which is what I originally proposed it to be knit with. It’s wonderful Donna!
