The Double-Stitch Short Row Heel – a.k.a. the “yo-yo”
Comments(21) Table of contents for Short Rows & Sock Heels
- Short Rows, Deconstructed
- The Double-Stitch Short Row Heel – a.k.a. the “yo-yo”
- Roomier Short Row Heels
- Sasquatch Report
So — a few weeks ago, I wrote about sock heels. How I don’t really like flap-and-gusset style heels, and how the EZ afterthought heel usually seems too small for me, and how I’d been checking out all kinds of short row heels, in my search for the Best Short Row Heel of All Time.
I did knit an awful lot of sock heels (some of them truly awful).
And then… I found The One.
This particular heel style seems to be (1) not very common, and (2) decidedly German in its heritage. I’ve only found it online a couple of places: one mention of it on an native Austrian knitter’s blog, and instructions for it on the Lana Grossa site (which seems to be down for the count these days). In print, so far I’ve found it only in a Regia pamphlet.
This is a shame, I think, because this heel has a lot of positive qualities. It’s easy to do, once you know what it is you’re supposed to do. It makes a darned nice heel, IMHO. It is not prone to gaps, nor does it require weird backwards YO’s, nor does it have odd-looking decreases up the sides. The whole wrap & turn thing? Forget it. And the inside looks practically as nice as the outside.
And, it adds one more thing to EZ’s famous list of "things you can do wrong when you’re learning to knit that turn into a technique later on." You know how beginners sometimes take the yarn the wrong way over the top of the needle when they are starting a row? Guess what? There’s a use for that. Trust ingenious German engineering to come up with one.
All that – plus the fact that I can’t quite wrap my head around what exactly is going on with the short row turns – just fascinates me. I’ll get it figured out someday, but for now, I’m content to just be impressed.
In fact, the only thing I don’t like about this heel is… the name. Yup, once again, I have a nomenclature problem.
It’s called the Yo-yo heel, or sometimes, and even more incomprehensibly, the Jo-jo heel. I think both of those sound, well, stupid. (And there aren’t any "YO’s" in it, anyway. Let alone whatever a "JO" is, or might be.)
So, following in the great historical tradition of knitters calling things by different names, I have decided to call it the Double-Stitch Short Row Heel. And here’s how to do it –
Please bear in mind that the light orange example shown in these pictures is knit at a much looser gauge than usually used for socks - thus the finished example heel may look kind of loose and hole-y – but at sock gauge, it’s marvelous. Would I lie to you? About knitting?
Double-Stitch Short Row Heel — First half
K across all heel sts, turn.
First WS row:
- Hold yarn to front, slip next st pwise.
- Take working yarn to back over RH needle; then take working yarn to front between needles, pulling snugly so that the slipped st falls to the back, and the stitch in the row below is pulled up over the RH needle – WS double st made.
-
- Keep the working yarn to the left of the slipped st as you bring it over the RH needle, so the st that is pulled up from below IS NOT twisted.
- P back across rem heel sts, turn.
First RS row:
- Hold yarn to front, slip next st pwise.
- Take working yarn to back over RH needle; pull working yarn snugly to back, so the slipped st falls to the back and the stitch in the row below is pulled up over the RH needle – RS double st made.
- Keep the working yarn to the left of the slipped st as you bring it over the RH needle, so the st that is pulled up from below IS twisted.
- K heel sts up to, but not including, the double stitch from the previous row.
** Next WS row: Make WS double st; then P all the normal sts up to, but not including, the double st(s) previously made. Turn.
Next RS row: Make RS double st; then K all the normal sts up to, but not including, the double st(s) previously made. Turn. **
Continue to repeat last 2 rows (between **), making double sts at beg of each short row, until your heel is divided almost into thirds:
- one third double sts on the left,
- one third plain sts in the middle + 1 extra st,
- one third double sts on the right, except 1 st short.
You should be about to work a RS row – which will take one more plain st from the middle and turn it into a double st. Then everything will be nice and tidy.
Last RS row: Make RS double st; then K all the normal sts across the middle of the heel up to the double sts.
Continue to knit across left side of heel, working the double sts by inserting the RH needle under both forward loops of the double st, and knitting as if for a k2tog. (Be careful to pick up both front loops, and only the front loops.)
Continue working around whole sock now, across instep sts. Knit the double sts on the right side of heel in the same manner. Work around most of the sock a second time, across the instep sts, and stopping when you are about to work the heel sts again.
Second half of heel
K across 2/3 of the heel sts, turn.
First WS row: Make WS double st, P back [one third of the heel sts, minus the one you slipped], turn.
For example, on a 36 st heel:
- First knit across 2/3 of the sts = 24 sts. Leave 12 sts of the heel unworked on left side.
- Turn and use 1 st to make the WS double st, then purl back over
- (1/3 of the heel sts – 1)
- = (12 sts -1)
- = 11 sts. Now 12 sts on the right side of the heel also rem unworked. Turn.
** Next RS row: Make RS double st, K to double st of prev row, K the double st, K1, turn.
Next WS row: Make WS double st, P to double st of prev row, P the double st, P1, turn. **
Continue to repeat last 2 rows (between **), until you have purled the last st of the right side of the heel on your last WS row.
Last RS row: Make RS double st, K to double st at end of heel, K the double st. Heel is complete. Continue working around sock. One double st will rem at the beg of the heel, which will be worked on the next round.
Nice, eh?
Other posts in Sox Therapy
- Sock Design 101: Part 3 - May 26th, 2009
- News Flashes - May 19th, 2009
- Sock Design 101: Part 2 - May 12th, 2009
Other posts in Technique Speak
- On the Edge - April 15th, 2009
- Fixing the Too-Short Socks - March 3rd, 2009
- When the Student Is Ready... - January 29th, 2009
Maybe the name for this heel (if it is indeed a German heel) was originally “jo jo” and Americanized to “yo yo” because in German a “j” is pronounced like a “y”.
Are you going to write a whole sock pattern using this heel?
Hey Sandy, that’s interesting information! But what would “jo-jo” mean in German??
This heel is what I wrote into the Kenkyo sock pattern. One of the reasons it took me so long to get that pattern done is, I was trying all these other heels and stuff. I really like this heel though (can you tell?)!
Many thanks for this, you have saved my sanity. My heel is not perfect but is now far better than the sorry mess I achieved, and had to frog, following the pattern instructions for the sock that I am currently making.
I think that I may now be in love with you. May I have your babies? :-)
You’re quite welcome — so glad to know that this was helpful for you! I really do think this is a great heel style.
Hmmm… babies? kind of you to offer… maybe you can do some knitting for me instead?? ;)
[...] should work with any short row method, but I’m jonesin’ to try it out with the double st short row heel (aka the yo-yo or jo-jo heel). I’v got a pair of two-at-a-time, toe-ups on one circ [...]
[...] it works! This is using the first half only of the double st SR heel technique – but doing it twice – and it’s kind of cool, too. On the sock with the [...]
Hi, The Jojo heel is called a yoyo because its like a yoyo in its action, it goes back and forth like a yo yo only a bit less each time IYSWIM.
I love the Boomerand heel too, Its very pretty and also very main-stream looking too. It really makes the sock look shop brought and not homemade.
I always think of this stich not as a double stich but as a slipped stich with yarn in front that is pulled way way too tight. LOL
I am going to link this to a friend :)
Tess,
Thank you SO MUCH for researching this technique and publishing the very clear tutorial on the double-stitch sock heel.
I’m an experienced knitter but a beginning sock maker. I tried the other mainstream method of short-row heels on my first sock & was really dissatisfied. I used this method on the 2nd sock of the pair and am thrilled. I look forward to a whole new passion of sock knitting!
Thank you for these instructions. The pictures are especially helpful.
I have been using this heel since I found it in a Kaffe Fassett Regia design pamphlet. There it is called a “Round Heel”. It is a great heel!
I am just starting to knit socks for Christmas, using the K Fassett yarn, and the pamphlet instructions are a disaster. Thank you for your fabulous site. I have bookmarked it! I tried your Polar Bear site and the link did not work. I will return. Again thank you, Julie
Hi Julie! thanks for the compliments! and glad I could help. :) Not sure why the PBP link didn’t work but I’ll check into that… you can always type in “polarbearpatterns.com” though. See you around!
Your site explained that you had seen this new heel pattern in a Regia pattern pamphlet. I have this pattern but am having trouble with the start of the heel. Can you please explain the beginning of the heel-starting with the dividing stitches. It says to divide the stitches onto 3 needles, which I did, then knit all the way across. The problem is that when I split the stitches onto the 3 needles my working yarn is in the middle of the new middle needle so when I knit the stitches across, I have only knitted half on the new middle needle and knit across the 4th needle. I haven’t done anything with the 1st needle. I am not sure what I am missing except I have divided the stitches wrong. Please advise-thank you.
Hi Danielle, I sure hope we have the same pamphlet! Mine says things a little differently than what you have described… I’ll paraphrase a bit here:
Work the heel back and forth over the sts on needles 1 and 4. Arrange the heel sts in 3 sections as given in the table (which is more-or-less in thirds).
Given that my pamphlet’s directions also say the end of the round is between needles 4 and 1, I think I can envision why your working yarn would end up in the middle of your heel!!
Basically what you want to do though, is work the heel over half of your sock’s total sts, and it technically doesn’t much matter which half. If you don’t have any kind of design on the leg of your sock, you can freely start the heel pretty much over any sts you want. Just work across half the total sts — in my directions above, that’s where I say “K across all heel sts, turn” — then start doing the short rows.
If your sock is plain, the simplest thing for you to do is just work the heel over needles 1 and 2, not needles 4 and 1.
If OTOH your sock has some kind of design, then pick the sts for the heel such that the design is centered, or wherever you want it to be, with respect to the heel.
Hope that helps!
I got me a new heel!!! I am going to work this for all my toe ups and will probly figure this out but….When I go thro the double stitch on second half, knit or purl side, am I to pull the stitch around where I knit/purl thro the front of it? I went thro the back of those stitches (cuz it was most handy) and now I have “ladders” all thro the seams. Or am I not pulling tight enough when I make it originally. Please respond. I LOVE this heel and want to get it right. I will be posting this tut on Yahoo socknitters group and knittinghelp.com so EVERYONE can love it too. Thank you for finding it for us!!
Hey Melissa, glad you like it! As for knitting the doubled sts — I’m not quite sure what you mean by “pull the st around”, but you should not be working into the back of the doubled sts. They should be just the same as on the first half of the heel.
On that note, it’s worth mentioning that at the end of this post is an explanation and examples of my successful experiment with doing the first half of a short-row heel twice. You may want to take a look at that if you are having trouble with the second half. In fact, with most if not all of the SRHs that I tried, the first half almost always looks way better than the second half — and you could use this trick with any two-part SRH method. Cheers!
Thanks for this explanation – I have the Regia pamphlet and was stumped! Now I’m on my way!
Thanks for this. I managed to figure out how to do this from the Reggia pamphlet but it was VERY confusing. My socks are a little tight around the front of the ankle. I would like to work out how resolve this problem. I think perhaps the answer lays in working the heel over a greater number of stitches. I think this heel looks amazing. It is so neat and gives a professional-looking finish akin to manufactured socks. Too bad the the Reggia pattenr is so poorly written – I think it has put a lot of people off trying this heel…
Dear Tess
I too have the Regia pattern. I have asked 4 experienced sock knitters all of whom siad ‘forget it, do flap style’. Now I have found this site I will give it a try as I prefer the less ‘homemade’ look. Thanks for the clear instructions.
There is also a utube by Cat someone on a ‘wrap ‘ heel that shows a slightly different wrap, but the end result is very similiar.
Hi Claire! I hope you don’t give up on this heel style without giving it a try. Of course, everyone has their own preferences, which I think mostly come down to fit and how it feels in the end — but there is one more big advantage to a short-row style that came up the other day.
This Friday I had a student bring me some of her favorite socks which had worn out at the heel, and of course they were flap & gusset — which is pretty much impossible to repair. If you do a short-row style heel — this one or any of the others — they can be taken out and reknitted relatively easily. You end up doing something like Elizabeth Zimmerman’s “Afterthought heel”. But it beats throwing out your favorite pair of socks!
Thank you!!! I’ve spent two days trying to find simple instructions for short rows. I get the concept but also got holes for all my efforts. I found your tutorial today and have just completed a very nice practice heel. It’s pretty and has no holes!!! TA DA!!! I’m ready to work on more socks. Really, I’m only slightly addicted to socks..since last November and a “sock” class.