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