I’ll get to the heel turn in a second – I gotta show you what came in the mail from Lene!
That is my camera shadow in the picture. Heh.
That is part of an Elaborate Trade with Lene (in Germany) that started back during the LL contest. She offered me a bribe of Kauni Effektgarn, a German self-striping yarn (she made Pi with the rainbow colorway). I said that I thought a bribe would be a great thing and the Wheels of Swap were set in motion. I got 200g (800m) of Kauni Effekts in a sort of brown, blue and gold colorway. This ought to be enough to make a sweater vest for myself. If it isn’t there are about a million other things that I can do with it. The grey and purple yarn is called Evilla Artyarn. I don’t know what I am making with it yet, maybe a shawl or something. But wait, there’s more!
FIBER
The rainbow colors were all wrapped up in a long, soft fleecy bit of brown and were such a pretty surprise to open. The grey and tan next to those are sheerling alpaca! I can’t wait to try them out (since I only have the one spindle, they will have to wait a little while). The cats have shown a disturbing interest in the grey alpaca. It now resides in the top of the closet. You can’t be too safe! Lene also included some Pirate Licorice Coins in my package – which are way cool by themselves but I now know that “Glukosesirup” means “Glucose” in German. I can’t figure out what “7,99% Salmiak” means. I think it is related to “Extra Stark.” Context will only get you so far. Thank you so much, Lene! I hope your package gets there soon!
On to the sock heel!
**Added 4/22/2006: You can print out the complete HayStack Socks pattern here!**
My sock leg reached 6.5 inches after four and a half repeats of the pattern. I toyed with making the heel flap in stockinette, but I have never found those to fit well and ended up using the standard heel stitch on mine. I did decide to try a “Dutch Heel” for a change of pace (I usually make round heels – I like how they look). In the Dutch Heel discription in Folk Socks, Nancy Bush mentions that you can continue the heel stitch pattern over the length of this heel turn for reinforcement. I thought this would be great since M walks through his heels first. So I’ve tried it. And I think it looks OK. SO the heel flap and turn go like this:
Sometimes they call it a “Square Heel.”
Heel Flap
Rearrange your stitches so that there are 36 stitches on needle one and 18 stitches on needles two and three. If you just add the next 12 stitches to needle one, the leg pattern will be centered across the instep. Working back and forth on needle one (36sts):
Row 1 (RS): *S1, K1 repeat from * across row
Row 2: S1, P across row
Repeat these two rows until the heel flap reaches 2.5 inches (about 20 repetitions). End with a wrong side row.
Turn Heel
Still working back and forth on the 36 stitches of needle one
Row 1: *S1, K1 repeat from * across 24 sts, SSK, TURN
Row 2: S1, P12, P2tog, TURN
Row 3: *S1, K1 repeat from * across 12 sts, S1, SSK, TURN
Repeat rows 2 and 3 until all heel flap stitches have been worked (14 sts remain).
Divide the 14 stitches of the heel onto two needles. Combine the 36 stitches from needles 2 and 3 onto one needle (instep). K7. The round now begins and ends in the center of the heel (needle one holds 7sts, needle 2 has 36sts and needle 3 has 7sts).
Tomorrow, the gussett! And I have been working on the Honeydew Top.
I tried it on.
Three more rounds and then I will begin the side shaping.