Tuesday 29 April 2014

After-thought heel

I've been procrastinating a bit. I "should" be working on the current clue of the Ray of Gold MKAL I'm doing. Look how gorgeously the yarn works with the stitch pattern in my swatch

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Instead I've started a scrappy ripple blanket and been knitting my stripy (stripey?) sock

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I've been using these instructions as a basis for my afterthought heel. I knit my sock to about 2 inches shy of the end of my foot and then I knitted half a row (32 stitches) with some waste yarn and then carried on knitting as normal

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After casting off my sock  I picked up the stitches either side of the waste yarn row and then unravelled it. In the tutorial I linked above the knitter unravels the yarn and then picks up the stitches. I did it differently because I was worried about dropping a stitch or 6 ;-)

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I then unravelled the waste yarn to leave the live stitches on my circular needle ready for magic looping. On the first round I picked up a stitch in the gap between needles and immediately decreased it to try to reduce holes. I should probably have picked up two but hey ho!

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Then I basically knitted a toe by repeating the following two rows using the magic loop technique but it would equally work on two circular needles:

Row 1
 - Needle 1: Knit to last 3 stitches then K2tog K1
- Needle 2: K1 Sl 1 K1 psso then knit to last 3 stitches K2tog K1

Row 2
- Needle 1: K1 Sl 1 K1 psso then knit to end
- Needle 2: Knit to end


I worked these two rounds until I got to 14 stitches on each needle, 28 stitches in total. I then joined them together using Kitchener stitch. Simples! I'm going to cast on for the second sock this afternoon, I'm looking forward to having this pair to wear.

I'm linking this post up with Keep Calm Craft On

11 comments:

  1. I have never done an afterthought heel. I may have to try it sometime!

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    1. It's a nice technique, and very good for striped socks like this or ones where you don't want to think about the stitch pattern and the heel at the same time :)

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  2. Pretty patterns and wonderful yarn! Fascinating what perfect stripes this sock yarn makes. Thanks for your nice comment on my mandala and have a beautiful day!
    Nata

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    1. Thank you :) It's fab yarn isn't it, it's from Laughing Yaffle, my husband bought it for my birthday :)

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  3. Oh your beautiful knitting is so inspirational! Thanks for sharing...Lori (visiting from Frontier Dreams)

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  4. How do you like this heel compared to the short row one? I like these colors. Eye-catchy they are. The swatch works terrifically with your yarn. I'm curious about this shawl pattern. Want more next time.

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    1. The fit is similar to a short row heel but it looks neater for me as I'm a bit sloppy with short rows!

      Not worked on my shawl in a while, the other projects in this post are a ripple blanket and a swatch for a MKAL cardigan

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  5. I love the colors on your ripple blanket and the technique on the heel.Nothing wrong with procrastination knitting/crocheting. I've been procrastinating on a fingering weight little purple baby dress for at least a week and a half now.

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  6. I love the colours of your swatch, that st pattern is perfect for the yarn! Your sock looks great too, I will have to try an after thought heel one day!

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  7. That is a very clever technique, the things knitters come up with never cease to amaze me!

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Thanks for visiting, I love comments :-)

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