the Soxophone Player

Here is a different twist on the hand knit style square heel: the Eye of the Partridge:

The square part of the heel is double knit.

To begin the heel, instead of stopping my yarn carrier at 6 o’clock position and raising the back half of the needles out of work, I stop at 12 o’clock:

The back half of the needles will be raised as in other heels, but first I prepare the needles that will knit the heel. Beginning at the left red hash mark, I raise the first needle on my side of the red mark, and then every other needle until |I get to the other red hash mark on the right hand side. I am working on the 72 needle cylinder, so I will have 36 (half of 72) needles knitting the heel. Because that is an even number, it means if the first needle is raised, then the final needle will not be raised.

I start my first pass, then stop at 6 o’clock position and raise the back half of the needles out of work.

This heel is double knit, so each row is knit twice: once clockwise with every other front needle out of work (this is besides the back half of the needles that are out of work for the whole heel making). Then once counter clockwise with all the heel needles lowered in work (as in the above photo).

So – once back, and then once forth will equal one row of double knitting.

(A watch point - make sure the first and last stitch knit properly – it is easy to miss one without dropping it – see the first stitch to the left of the red mark above – you can see there are two stitches on that needle – I need to flip the lower one over the top one in order to complete that incomplete stitch.)

After the double knit row is done, I raise every other needle again EXCEPT – this time I raise the second needle (instead of the first) by the left red mark, and then every other needle…so this time the final heel needle will be down,  and then when this row is knit clockwise, again we lower all the heel needles and knit counter clockwise to complete the second double knit row.

I continue this back and forth, until I’ve completed 14 x back and forth.  So – on the 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13 pairs of rows I raise the first needle from the left, and on the 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, and 14th pairs of rows I raise the second needle from the left plus every other needle.

(Another watch point - on the even numbered rows where the last needle is up – when you put that needle down to do the clockwise pass with all heel needles down – the yarn will be on the front of that needle when you push it down. That will drop the stitch – SO – slip the yarn to the backside of that needle so it will catch. )

As this heel square grows I use two heel forks, each with a single weight, to keep the work taught.

I finish my 14th pair of rows with my yarn carrier to the left. The Eye of the Partridge square is now complete and next is to knit the flap that will go under the heel. The Eye of the Partridge section is 36 stitches wide, but the heel flap will be only one third of that, or 12 stitches wide. So….while the yarn carrier is on the left side, I raise out of work the last third (12) of the heel needles on the right side.

Then I knit across to the right side.

And then lift right off the cylinder, with stitches still on the needles, one third of the heel needles on the left side, and one third of the heel needles on the right side – so 12 out from the left, 12 out from the right, and 12 remain in work. (Don’t be scared…you can do this!)

Now – I need to knit the heel flap, AND I need that flap to ‘turn under’ – so:

Take the first removed needle that is sitting inside the cylinder on the left side, and put its stitch on the first needle on the left side that remains in work. AND take the first removed needle on the right side and place its stitch on the first needle in work on the right side. So – the two outside needles in work each now have two stitches on them.

Knit back, and then forth.

Then grab the next stitch off a removed needle on the left and right and park them, once again – on the same outer left and outer right working needle, and again knit once back and once forth.

Keep doing this until all needles sitting inside the cylinder have had their stitches knit onto the centre flap.  I took out 12 needles on the left, and 12 on the right, so I should have completed 12 back and forths for my under heel flap.

Next, all those removed needles go back into their slots. And then we pick up the stitches from the side edges of the Eye of the Partridge square and park them on those empty needles.

Remember when we knit that square we did 14 back and forth rows. And we have 12 empty needles on each side.  So that give one stitch to hang on each of the 12 needles, plus an extra stitch  that we can put on the first needle before those empty 12, and the first needle after those empty 12 – to lock the work in place and minimize holes at the joints.

That’s it – knit the foot and toe with your own recipe and have a great sock with a doubled hand-look heel.