interesting sock discussion

FWIW I also knit 60% of stitches into a short row heel for better fit. And I knit one sock two rounds longer in the foot, and shape the toes to fit the left and right foot. I could never see the point to knitting socks (well, more that just the occasional pair anyway) if they weren't fitted to the foot they were destined for.

Your Interesting sock dimensions discussions , was very good. i must admit i haven`t knitted socks for quite some time , but i did calculations for some people ..my method is taking 1/2 the number of the circumference for the heel ,,,, working the heel than coming back to same number I must admit i never knew anyone who had a special wide heel or as somebody here wrote a wider toe part,,,,, good thinking material for the day ,,, mirjam

I wonder if anyone has any ideas on a peasant heel. I crochet my socks and use a peasant (or afterthought) heel and find they can be difficult to fit. I find it's better for me if I crochet two-tree rounds even before starting the decreases. Is there any discussion of this on the knit side of things.

Hi Mirjam. A peasant heel, or afterthought heel, is a heel knitted onto the sock last. It's really just another toe where a turned heel would normally go. Instead of darning up a hole in the heel you can just pull it off and put on a new one!

Threnody is our crochet socks guru so might be able to help you with your heel issues.

Most of the resources I have for afterthought heels on knitted socks want you to pick up extra stitches at each end of the heel opening (to close the holes you'd otherwise have), then knit one round plain while decreasing the extra stitches into the total stitch count to close those holes. So yes, there's one round even in there.

Hm. Perhaps you need to make your afterthought heels on more than half the total sock stitches to get a better fit without the extra plain rounds?

Well, I don't think so. When making an afterthought heel one knits

50% or 60% of the sock stitches onto a waste yarn, then knits across the waste stitches and proceeds with the sock. Once the toe is finished one pulls out the waste yarn, picks up the live stitches (plus extras to cover over the holes at the ends), then knits the heel that's really a toe.

So sure, knit a "spare" but you'll have to graft it onto 100% of the live stitches! Easier to just pull the old damaged heel off, pick up the live stitches again and knit another - who cares if it matches, right?

OTOH it would be a faster repair to graft it on - assuming you could find it when it was needed! Maybe it would be best to have a stash of generic heels/toes ready to graft onto socks as needed. :-) My old idea of the modular sock would work with those: just knit pretty tubes of whatever pattern you like, then graft on a toe. When you find out what size foot an intended recipient has, then you snip and ravel half a round and graft in a heel.

There's a precedent: Once I saw an advertisement in a 1920s magazine for pre-made sock feet to be grafted onto existing stocking legs, for the busy mother.

=Tamar

Farant welcome here ,, i never heard of a Peasant heel ,,, ????????what is this ??? mirjam

Sounds interesting , thus in fact one might knit 3 heels at the same time and keep one as reserve ??? mirjam

I just started a pair in crochet and will try to make my heel on more than 50%. Given the pattern and the way the sock is worked, it will end up being on about 66%. I'll let you know how that goes.

Louise