Thursday, July 19, 2007

Heel Help?

I have the beginnings of a Marigold to show...

marigolds beginnings

I got up to the heel last night and now I've hit a snag. I'm not a fan of the straight short-row heel in toe-up socks because I like my socks snug and a short-row heel just doesn't have the fit of a gusset and heel flap.

I decided to try the heel from Knitty's Widdershins, which is basically made up of...
  1. Increases to form the gusset (pretty easy, M1 at beginning & end of sole)
  2. Short row increases (i.e. the heel turn bit in top-downs, but in reverse) - slightly confusing as the pattern is given for a 54-stitch sock whereas I have a 64-stitch sock so I wasn't sure how many increases or where to start/end the short row shaping
  3. Followed by the slip stitch (K1, sl1) heel flap from bottom up with decreases at the same time on both sides of the flap - thoroughly confusing as by this time I wasn't sure how many stitches I was supposed to have on my needles, and therefore how fat my heel flap was supposed to be, and therefore where the decreases (P2tog/ssk) were supposed to take place
  4. HELP!
I wish there's a formula somewhere that helps you calculate how many stitches you need for different parts of this pattern for socks with different stitches... Anyone game?

For the sake of expediency, I'm thinking of ripping the whole thing out and trying the toe-up gusset by Wendy Johnson which I found thanks to Emily on Ravelry. (Check out her Marigolds - they're beautiful.)

In other news, what happened to my mum's birthday cardigan? Well, I came so close to finishing it on time (I was literally weaving in ends minutes before we had to go to her birthday dinner), but alas, I completely forgot about buttons!

I gave it to her to try anyway and while she expressed all the admiration and gratitude to sooth the nerves of the giver, it is clearly too small!

I'm hoping a bit of heavy blocking will fix the problem but we'll see. Here it is blocking in all its glory.

lacy cable cardigan blocking

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Let me know how you go with the cardi. I have the sweater version lined up to knit, maybe I'd better rethink the sizing!

Anonymous said...

There IS a formula for the Widdershins heel! Well, not really a formula but a very handy chart by K2Knits that doesn't involve any math. You just look up the correct number of gusset increases based on the amount of stitches you have. I'm in absolute love with this heel construction and have been using it for all my socks since I discovered it. :)

It's here: Revisiting the Widdershin heel.

Anonymous said...

The cardigan is so pretty!

As for sock heels, it was just trial and error for me to figure out what works. I haven't tried Wendy's pattern yet.

chookie said...

The cardi is so gorgeous! I have this on my "list" but it seems to be forever growing that the cardi keeps getting pushed back.

How did you like working with the alpaca silk ?

pamela wynne said...

Oh, the cardigan is lovely!
& I'm excited to see how the widdershin heel works out. :)

peaknits said...

I found you through Ravelry - thanks for making me a friend:) I love your Marigolds so far, I want to try that pattern - I haven't done enough toe-ups to give you any heel advice.:( I love the sweater - good luck with blocking!