Moving on.

Turns out, the sock I knit was too short for James. In fact, it barely reached my calf. Fit my feet amazingly though.

So I'm going to make another one of these, but I'm going to keep it for myself.

The sock that I'm working on for James, I'm doing in a completely different way. I'm knitting from the toe up.

Recap from last post:

Using Judy's Magic Cast On, I cast on 24 stitches, which is half of the required stitches for the main part of the foot. Using one circular needle and two DPNs, I increase 4 stitches every other row, just after the first stitch on each needle, and before the last stitch on each needle. I do this until I reach 48. My 5x1 rib is on the circular needle, which has 24 stitches. I work stockinette stitch on the other 24 stitches, which are divided evenly on the two DPNs.

I count my circular needle as Needle 1, and my DPNs as needles 2 and 3.

I worked this 5x1 rib and stockinette until I'm about 3 inches short of the required foot length. As James foot is 9.5 inches, I was supposed to take the pattern to 6.5. I accidently took it to 7.5.

At this point I start increasing for the gusset. My original pattern has the stitch count before the gusset as 64, so I'm going to increase to this number. To do this, I make 2 increases every other round. Knit needle 1 in pattern, K1 M1, knit all on needle two. Knit all stitches on needle three to the last stitch, M1 K1. Round two, knit all stitches as presented.

I then reach 64 stitches, and run into an issue. My pattern book of choice doesn't really give much help with regards to different gauges. After doing a little bit of digging, I realized that I needed to turn the heel by working short rows IGNORING the gusset stitches.

So to turn the heel, I worked it as follows:

Row 1: Knit stitches as presented on needle 1. Needles 2 and 3 have 20 stitches each. K30, kf&b, k1, w&t.

Row 2: P22, pf&b, p1, w&t

Row 3: K20, kf&b, k1, w&t

Row 4: P18, pf&b, p1, w&t

Row 5: K16, kf&b, k1, w&t

Row 6: P14, pf&b, p1, w&t

Row 7: K12, kf&b, k1, w&t

Row 8: P10, pf*b, p1, w&t

Knit to the end of needle 3, and Knit all stitches as presented on needle 1.

Now my heel is turned, even though I had to drastically fudge the recipe. Now I have to make the heel flap! I realized that in making the heel flap, I have to work short rows on the middle stitches, gradually incorperating the gusset stitches with ssk and k2tog stitches.

Row 1: Knit all stitches on needle 2, and knit stitches on needle 3 until 16 stitches remain. Ssk, turn.

Row 2: Sl1, purl all stitches on needle 3, and purl stitches on needle 2 until 16 stitches remain. P2tog, turn.

Row 3: *S1, k1*, repeat from * until you reach the point in the work where you turned the work. Ssk, turn.

Repeat rows 2 and 3 until all the gusset stiches have been worked. You end with a purl row. Divide these stitches onto your two needles again. When I ended the purl row, I had 56 stitches. According to the pattern I was modifying, I needed 48. To get this number, I knitted *k2, ssk* until I reached the end of needle 2, and then *k2tog, K2* till I reached the end of needle 3.

And there I am! I'm ready to start working on the 5x1 rib up the calf. I still have to figure out where I'm doing my increases, but at least I've decifered the pattern this far. I'll make James try on the foot when I get home, and then I'll start the calf.

Phew! 2 hours of fudging different knitting patterns until I figured out the basic theory behind turning a heel. Everything works around the gusset stitches, just remember to work my short rows INSIDE them, not with them. This is going to be helpful for later patterns!