Roomier Short Row Heels

OK, even I can admit that this short row heel obsession thing may be getting a bit out of hand.

But there’s another little gem of genius here worth sharing, in my efforts to eliminate the inelegant flap-and-gusset-style heel from the face of the earth.

I’ve seen where some people, especially men, prefer the fit of an F’n’G heel, because they find that a short-row heel doesn’t have enough room in it for them.  So here’s an idea from a commercial sock that may be worth trying, if that’s the case for you —

This is one of those little "no-show" socks.  The heel caught my eye one day, and after looking at it for a while, I realized what they did.

They started out by short-rowing "down", as we usually do for a standard SR heel.

However, they didn’t go as far "down" as is usual for a hand-knit sock:  they did fewer short rows, so that something like half the heel sts are still live.

This will make for a wider, less pointy, and thus presumably roomier, heel.

But they didn’t stop there.  Because if all you do is simply perform fewer short rows, it will also make for a much more shallow heel.  That’s fine if you’re doing a toe, and you simply don’t want it to be quite so pointy — but not so fine if you’re after a bigger heel.  Kind of cancels out the roominess factor.  Uh-uh.

So what they did to give the heel adequate depth is this:  they started short-rowing back "up", again just like we do — except about 1/3 of the way there, they turned around and started short-rowing BACK DOWN.

And then once again, they turned around and short-rowed all the way back up.  Simple, no?  Elegant, yes?

This 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 going, and with the amount of car time I’ve got this weekend, I may get a chance to play with this.

Happy holiday weekend, everyone!  and Happy Knitting!