Wait – heel flaps are BACK?
I thought we got rid of heel flaps when the world discovered the no-holes Fleegle heel!
Nope – turns out we just took a breather while a newer, better heel flap was in the works.
It’s not that I don’t love the Fleegle heel, but my lovely readers and I kept bumping into a few problems with it.
Three reasons why the (beloved) Fleegle heel is not necessarily the best and only way to turn a heel:
1) You can’t adjust the heel for a high instep.
2) You can’t do the heel in a different color if you want two-tone socks.
3) You can’t add fun heel-flap patterns like the eye-of-the-partridge heel.
But a traditional top-down heel flap isn’t perfect either, because…
1) You have to knit the sock top-down. Ugh.
2) It’s hard to know when to start the heel flap.
3) You have to pick up stitches.
Isn’t there some way to turn a heel on a toe-up sock that solves all of these problems?
Well, it was mighty hard to find good toe-up heel-flap sock patterns on the web, so, with the help of Miriam Felton’s tutorial, I created a basic pattern that we all can use.
Finally: A Toe-Up Sock With The Perfect Heel Flap
I’m not afraid to call this heel flap perfect! It really does solve all the problems listed above, and I teach you how to do it on today’s video.
The beauty of this heel flap is that you can add a pattern to the heel, even make it in a different color if you want, and never have to pick up stitches or guess when you should start.
You can easily adjust it for a high instep (or a really high instep) and never have socks that are too tight around the ankle.
There are no seams, no holes, and it’s really fast. So fast, in fact, that it only takes a 12-minute video to do the entire thing, and that’s with me explaining each step carefully.
Excited yet?
But wait! There’s more.
Practice All Your Superstar Skills On This One Heel Flap
You know I never like to pass up an opportunity to challenge you, dear reader, to use all your skills.
Another reason to love this toe-up heel-turn technique is that’s it’s basically a compact little exercise for practicing many of the skills you’ve learned while following this blog.
In fact, while making the video I started to sound like a commercial for some sort of KnitFreedom “app store” – there’s a video for that! There’s a video for that, too!
Any of these sound familiar?
- Knitting fast
- Recognizing when it’s time to increase
- Counting your stitches fast
- Wrapping and turning
- Picking up and knitting wraps on the purl side
- Purling backwards
- Reading your work
These are the skills and tricks that you’ll use, time and time again, on complex projects, and we are going to practice all of these in the video. All in 12 minutes.
Video: How to Knit the Faux Heel Flap for Toe-Up Socks
Now let’s put these skills to work on the long-awaited basic worsted-weight toe-up heel-flap sock pattern. I’ve included tons of video links, so you’ll have my help every step of the way.
Download The Toe-Up Heel-Flap Sock Pattern Here
Ready to get your hands on this free pattern? It’s written for worsted-weight yarn so that it goes fast and you learn all the skills with a minimum of plain knitting.
Get it now:
Check out more pictures and read about the pattern here.
What about a fingering-weight version?
I’ve got a pattern for that too! Go to the fingering-weight faux-heel-flap toe-up sock pattern.
Next Week: An Advanced Bind-Off You Can Use With This Pattern
See the fun picot edging at the top of the socks in the photos?
Well, picot edging isn’t just for top-downers any more. Coming next week: decorate your cuffs with the stretchy picot hemmed-edge bind-off!
Keep Learning: Get The “How To Knit Toe-Up Two-at-a-Time Socks” Video E-Book
Are you going to try this pattern? Leave a comment! I love to hear your thoughts.
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