H is for Heels

H is for HEELS (and their flaps)

Those magical things that make socks seem so scary at first, and so special once you've done even one.  Those mystical magical moments that let you know that even if the instructions look insane, sometimes following them lets you perform miracles!

Here is Potty II, as I begin her heel flap.

Ah heel flaps!  The restful bit before the moment of truth...that mysterious short-row exercise that somehow yields a lovely rounded cup for the heel of your foot.  Tell me this isn't magic....

Now many folks let that heel flap be a boring bit of monotonous knitting.  This works well for self striping yarns, as they at least leave you with some visual interest.   
 

And it's certainly a pleasant break from a complicated pattern (or testy one). But even the all too familiar slip 1 knit 1 pattern can be dull after a sock or two. 

It doesn't have to be that way! 

Potty, for example, follows through with a lovely k1tbl, p1 rib (that leaves you purling through the back loop on the wrong side -- tedious maybe, but not monotonous.)  Even so, it leaves a lovely stretchy heel that snugs up against your ankle nicely:

For a more interesting, if still simple solution, there are graduated ribs, as I used for my Jaywalker socks:

These have just enough going on in the heel flap to keep them both visually and process-ly interesting, but not so much that they're just adding challenge for the sake of it.

Some designers go for it whole hog, and give you special details just for the heel (particularly nice for clog wearers).  Here, for example, is a well worn heel from  Lucy Neatby's Fiesta Feet

(and no, my ankle isn't deformed.  I took the picture with my fist in the heel of the sock instead of while wearing them because I didn't feel like doing contortions tonight.)

When you KNOW the sock will be worn with clogs, you can even do fun cable things with your heels.  This is from one of my favorite pairs of cotton socks:

I just winged it here, letting the cables grow out of the ribbing.  It suffers a bit from randomness, and could use a bit of plan ahead designing.  Anna Zilboorg did great things with heel flaps in Socks for Sandals and Clogs, which alas is oop... (on Amazon they're being offered for $100.00 for a used copy!!).

H is also for Harmony, for which I have no photos, and Health, for which, again, I have no photos.

Comments

[Carole]

You've made some really impressive heels flaps!

[Cece]

Thanks so much for your donation! I appreciate it!