Lotsa Socks

I finished ds3's socks. He happened to be with me when I went to the LYS to buy yarn (on sale!) and found this Day-Glo green yarn and wanted socks. Luckily it was Cascade Fixation (super easy to knit with) and it was on sale.

Afterthought heels have been on my to-do list, and this seemed like the perfect time to try. His feet are smaller than dh's and so I got to the heel part pretty quickly. I followed the directions from this site, and after a leap of faith, I went ahead and put in the stitch to take out.

Knitting socks without having to worry about a heel is NICE. You just get to the point where you will, at some future date to be determined, put in a heel and then just keep going. The only trouble with this is that it would be very easy to miscalculate how high to make a cuff (or how long to make the foot if you knit cuff down).

I finished the sock and bound off the stitches. Then it was time to deal with the heel. I picked up the stitches above and below the "holding" stitches and then started pulling out that pesky yarn. It was a lot easier than I expected, and viola, there was a lovely circular opening in the back of the sock right where a heel was waiting to be born.

Then it was just a matter of doing some very easy decreases, and that pesky Kitchener stitch, and I was done! There are a few more yarn ends to weave in when doing a heel this way, but it's a lot of fun.

I'm even doing my Sockamania sock with an afterthought heel. When I learn a new technique I like to use it a few times. That way I can feel confident with something new before I make any final decisions. So far, I think this one's a keeper.