Two Sock Patterns, Two Heels to Try

Think of your favorite pair of socks. What sets them apart for you? The color? The fiber? The pattern?

If you’re a knitter, you might guess something a bit different: the heel.

As someone who has knitted almost 75 pairs of socks in recent years, I have done every kind of heel imaginable. In terms of fit, there’s nothing more important than the heel. It’s the 90-degree angle separating the leg from the foot, the place on the garment that will handle the most friction, wearing out first. Unfortunately, it’s also the place where I get a bit lazy, sometimes doing the simplest heel possible. But inevitably, that backfires, pulling the sock up and making the foot too short. Drat.

I’ve learned my lesson, especially now that I have two new sock patterns and heel styles up my sleeve.

The Gardener's Socks use a heel flap that continues the cable pattern on one side, adding a decorative element to the heel. Shown here worked in soft, varigated Malabrigo Sock (Gepetto colorway).

Gardener’s Socks by Rachel Coopey

I casted on for this lace sock pattern by Rachel Coopey using a gorgeous 100% wool yarn I ordered through Knitrino, dyed by Sew Happy Jane. I don’t knit lacework very often—with additional cables, no less!—so it took me a while to truly focus on the lace and cable charts to avoid making mistakes and unpicking my row.

Once I committed to my pattern, no distractions, I realized that this is the perfect project for a relatively novice lace knitter. Each step and stitch are straightforward, with few repeats and relatively few stitches—if you do need to unpick a row and start over, it’s a lot easier with 56 stitches on a sock compared to hundreds in a shawl pattern.

Get a closer look at Erika's Gardener's Socks in process! Click on any image below to open it in full-screen mode. Photos by Erika Zambello

The heel was a first for me—the cables continue onto the heel flap! Back and forth, back and forth, the pattern builds the heel flap, then, over the course of a few short rows—poof! The heel appears! What was once flat now has a right angle, perfectly poised to hug the edge of my foot. Perhaps this is why I like knitting heels so much: In addition to their overall importance in sock construction, they feel like magic. A few turns here, some added stitches there (along the edge of the heel flap), and a new fabric inflection miraculously materializes. Isn’t that why we are all drawn to knitting in the first place? Creating something from nothing!

The Colorful Amish Stockings is a classic beginner pattern with a bit of flair—choose how much patterning you want on the leg, form your first heel flap and gusset, then it's smooth sailing until you get to the toe.

Colorful Amish Stockings by Nancy Bush

The Colorful Amish Stockings by Nancy Bush works a similar kind of heel flap, but the overall pattern depends on colorwork bands to give it that additional pop I look for in my sock patterns. Bush sets up her pattern in a "choose your own adventure" style series of steps. Did I want a long sock or short? How many color bands? Did I want to add the additional colorwork arrows? (Of course I did!)

Click on any image below to take a closer look at Erika's Colorful Amish Stockings. Photos by Erika Zambello

I opted for a short sock using mostly Brown Sheep Nature Spun skeins, as well stash yarn from a Tempestry kit I ordered earlier in the year from The Tempestry Project for the color bands and patterning. The most difficult part of the pattern for me was actually not the heel itself, but the increasing and decreasing of stitches in the cuff to create the wave look. Just like the Gardener's Socks, the heel was knitted back and forth in a flap using slipped stitches to give it extra strength, then it is incorporated into the foot by picking up stitches on the edge of the heel and continuing on in the round. Both patterns call for double-pointed needles, but I knitted them on a long circular using the magic-loop method with zero issues.

How do they fit?

A well turned heel—like these sock patterns use—take a bit more effort and a smidge more concentration, but oh my goodness do they fit snugly. The socks hug my foot like a warm embrace; the Gardener’s Socks are perfect for wearing with boots, and the Amish Socks feel nearly like a slipper.

At left, Erika chose to make her version of the Colorful Amish Stocking shorter than the original, but maintain the color bands and arrows. At right, though she doesn't knit lacework very often, Erika is pleased with how her Gardener's Socks turned out. Photos by Erika Zambello

Heel flaps may look complicated, but I find that when I zoom into the stitch-by-stitch directions, they’re no more difficult than heels from just short rows—and they’re certainly easier than afterthought heels that require a knitter to cut into or unravel part of their work. Plus, once you get the hang of working flap-style heels, you can customize them for your own unique foot, especially if you have wider or narrower insteps.

Happy sock knitting!

—Erika

Subscribers can find the Gardener’s Socks and the Colorful Amish Stockings in the Farm & Fiber Knits Library.