Short Row Heels

Heels on socks are not “hard” but they can be tricky and most knitters, including myself, sometimes struggle with making good heels with no holes where the heel/gusset/leg come together. Last night I was working on the Undulance sock and it has a short row heel. That was the first time I’ve ever made a short row heel.

Before we go any farther, if you’re a knitter and if you haven’t done short row heels . . stop reading, get your knitting needles, go to Suzanne’s You Tube Channel and find yourself a short row tutorial. There are several. I like German Short Rows better but others like Wrap & Turns better so . . learn to do them both and decide which one you like best and then you can use whichever one you need to use.

Today my plan was to get the heel turned on a pair of pink socks. These are toe up socks and the foot has been done for months but I needed to get the heel turned. I have to read instructions to do the toe up heel but if I could get that made, then I could take these plain vanilla socks to knitting group and get them finished. Plain stockinette is about all I seem to be able to do when with that group! We talk and laugh way too much.

I was wishing I could do the same short row heel I had done last night on the Undulance socks but they’re top down. While looking for a heel to use, I came across Suzanne’s German Short Row Heel video. Let me interrupt my thoughts here to tell you . . I am not affiliated with Suzanne in any way. I don’t get a dime if you watch every single one of her videos . . I’m just 100% impressed with everything I see that she’s done.

As I was watching that video, I thought I heard her say that these same instructions will work for toe up or top down. What did she just say?  I grabbed the sock from last night, turned it upside down and right side up and upside down again and  . . it does look the same to me so I made short row heels on my pink socks. As of this minute, I’m thinking I may never make anything but short row heels for my socks.

On the Undulance socks last night, I was able to do it, following Suzanne’s instructions, and use a different color yarn for the heel without having to do an afterthought heel. That’s a huge plus!

I think the short row heel looks good and it feels good and after just a couple of times, I think I’ll be able to do it without instructions. It doesn’t matter how many stitches you’re starting with, I don’t end up with holes, I don’t end up with a gusset that I feel is too big. I’ve said it before and I’ll probably say it again . . what I’m learning from Suzanne Bryan has changed my knitting tremendously.

Now that the heels are done on the pink socks, they can be packed into their little bag and I’ll take them to knitting with me on Tuesday and finish them . . not within the next week but soon.

Please . . if you’re a knitter, even a very experienced knitter, when you have a few minutes to spare, go to Suzanne’s You Tube Channel and watch one of her videos. I can’t imagine that there’s even one there that isn’t worth your time.