Over the past year or so, I’ve been using an afterthought heel a lot, especially when knitting with yarns with long colour changes (Knit Picks Felici for example). I’m a bit a lot anal about socks that match and I like that the afterthought heel doesn’t disrupt the colour sequence.
One of the things I don’t like about it is picking up the stitches from the waste yarn. I find it challenging to manipulate the second row of needles with the first ones already picked up; the sock becomes decidedly inflexible. It’s doable, I just tend to avoid it, which is why I ended up with 4 pair of socks waiting for heels in the week leading up to Christmas.
Last week in my typical bumbling fashion miscounted the number of needles I had knit with the waste yarn for the heel. Apparently counting to two was a bit complex for me. 😜 Anyway, since I had cut the yarn, I used another piece to finish the second needle:
As I was picking up the stitches, I realized that this blunder was actually working in my favour. I picked up the first two needles worth of stitches and took out the waste yarn:
Withdrew the waste yarn and picked up the last of the stitches:
That little bit of extra flexibility made it much easier and I feel less likely to miss a stitch. The same could be achieved by picking up half, releasing the waste yarn and then picking up the rest, but I like the idea of having a delineated stopping point. (Did I mention I was a bit a lot anal? 😜) Looking back, this seems so logical I can’t believe I didn’t try it before; and I’m sure it’s probably been included in a lot of how-to’s, but mostly I’m just happy I discovered my mistake before I’d knit half the foot of the sock. 🙂
As a bonus: my first pair of Christmas 2016 socks are done; only 9 more pairs to go. 🙂
Yarn: Knit Picks Felici in Mosaic
Needles: a combo of my Knit Picks metal DPNs and my Addi Flip Stixs
Pattern: a hodge-podge that have melded in my version of vanilla socks
Wow! That’s brilliant! I’ve been meaning to try that heel myself. Hmmm….
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I’m always impressed by your sock knitting speed. This pair is beautiful!
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Thank you! They’re little boy socks, so they knit up pretty quickly. 😀
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These socks are great! So cosy looking 🙂 I really ought to get on with my own… But the wifi on the metro lets me be distracted, I mean inspired, by everyone else’s socks! 😀
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This is an interesting way to attack that problem. I didn’t like the afterthought heel for just that reason. I’ve switched to fish lips kiss heel which involves no picking up of stitches but you can’t manipulate the stripes as much.
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I’ve never tried the fish lips; I’ll have to check it out.
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