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How do I shape a heel?


Megan75

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Hi all! I’m working on Christmas stockings right now and I’m struggling with the heel! Here is what my pattern reads:

Heel
With right side facing and larger hook, skip first 32 sts of last row, join B in next st; ch 1, sc in same st and in next 9 sts, bring other side of stocking around and sc in first 11 sts; turn – 21 sts.
Shape Heel
Work short rows as follows:
next Row: Ch 1, sc in first 14 sc; turn.
next Row: Ch 1, sc in first 7 sc; turn.
next Row: Ch 1, sc in first 7 sc, sc in next st of long row below; turn. – 8 sc.
next Row: Ch 1, sc in first 8 sc, sc in next st of long row below; turn – 9 sc. Continue in this manner until all 21 heel sts are worked. Fasten off.
 

I’m confused about how I work my short rows. When I try to follow the pattern it only ends up shaping half of the heel. My short rows of 7 are directly in the middle of my long row of 21. This is what’s confusing me because when I follow the pattern from there I don’t understand how I would be able to work in all 21 stitches. I got to the end of one side but still had 7 stitches of my row of 21 untouched. I must be doing something wrong! Any help is much appreciated!

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---9sc at the end of row is the stitch count for that row and not instructions.

Next row would be

ch1, sc for first 9 sc, sc in next stitch of long row below; turn you have a total of 10 sc in that row

Next row 

ch1, sc for first 10 sc, sc in next stitch of long row below; turn you have a total of 11 sc in that row

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Hi! Thanks for the help on my last question! I was hoping to get some help now that I’ve move on to the toe of the stocking. Here is what the pattern reads

Toe
With right side facing and larger hook, join B in first st of foot; ** ch 1, sc2tog, sc in next 15 dc, sc2tog, turn – 17 sc. Continue in sc only and decrease 1 st each end of every row until 3 sts remain. Fasten off. **
With right side facing, join B in next st of last long row. Work same as first half of toe from ** to **.

I tried to follow these instructions but the toe I got is very triangular and I don’t think it looks very good. Is there something I’m missing? Maybe I’m just bad at reading the patterns. Here is a picture of what it looks like currently

 

F267FC1B-9C51-4B94-AD05-3C652977BF67.jpeg

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Did you switch over to a larger hook like it says to?  I dont think you are missing something in this case as those instructions would make a triangle.  Maybe the designer used a much larger hook for the toe instead of just next size up and it rounded out better. I am not liking this pattern very much.  I would have preferred working the toe in the round.  If a much larger hook doesnt do it then you will have to experiment to get the look you want.  Maybe after working a row with decreases work a row with no decreases and also stop decreasing before you are left with just 3 stitches so toe is rounder.  

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Actually, I think the toe should end at about half the distance it is currently, meaning decrease faster, to achieve a round toe, a half circle.

I'm imagining the sock toe should be a half round circle from that point more or less.  (edited for clarity)

Let me play with some yarn; so the foot ends with 19 stitches for the first row of the toe to end with 17, by decreasing at each end...back in a few.

 

 

 

Edited by Granny Square
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I think you may have erred and only worked decreases at 1 end of each row?  Decreasing 1 stitch at each end of the row, decreases the current row by 2 from the prior row.

This is what I get when following your pattern. The white 'foot' row is 19 stitches, and each toe row decreases by 2 stitches. 

foot=19 sts

toe row 1=17sts

tow 2= 15sts

tow 3=13 sts

toe 4= 11 sts

toe 5= 9 sts

toe 6= 7 sts

toe 7= 5 sts

toe 8= 3 sts

Your photo seems to have twice as many rows as mine...

scan0001.jpg

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Ohhhh okay I see! I wasn’t doing it at both ends of the row so I think you’re right. I’ll have to try that out tonight and see how I like it. If it doesn’t work then I’ll have to experiment with some other options. Thank you!!

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A half circle isn't difficult by itself.  The tricky thing is making one along a straight edge.

But before I explain that...while I was playing with my swatch yesterday, and before it dawned on me that you must have only been decreasing on 1 side, I did some more drastic increasing (more than just decreasing 1 stitch on each side).  I think that might do the trick for a rounder edge.  Something on the order of throwing in more decreases around row 4, and beyond - maybe decreasing in the middle of the row, I think that might keep it flatter.  

Back to half circles:  The 'recipe' for a whole circle in sc is start with 6 stitches, and add 6 stitches each round; so row 2 would increase in each stitch to make 12; row 3 would be *increase in the next 1 stitch, don't increase in the next st, repeat; row 3 would be *increase in the next 1 stitch, don't increase in the next 2 sts, repeat--and continue, each round adds 1 more plain stitches between increases.  So to make a half circle, you'd start with 3, and add 3 each round in a similar way.

The thing is, you'd have to start in the middle of the last row of the foot, and 'reach over and attach' the ends of the rows of the half circle to the next stitch of the foot as you go; this might look odd.  I'd be inclined to make a separate half circle, leave a long tail, and carefully sew it on to the foot (mark the right side of each foot, if one side is going to look worse with sewing make sure it's on the inside of the sock)

I will make a new swatch and figure out the best way to get a rounder shape, this will knock a few rows off.  Back in a bit...

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Here is what I did with swatch#2: (per pattern means decrease 1 at each end)

foot=19 sts

toe row 1=sc across=19sts

tow 2= sc across=19sts

tow 3=per pattern=17 sts17 sts

toe 4=  sc 7, sc2tog, PM (place marker), sc to end=16 sts

toe 5=  per pattern, MM (move marker to this row's stitch made into marked stich))=14 sts  (also not a bad idea to mark the first and last stitch at this point)

toe 6=  sc2tog, sc to marked stitch, sc marked stitch and following stitch together, MM, sc to within 2 stiches of end, sc2tog=11 sts

toe 7= as row 6 =8 sts

toe 8 = per pattern = 6 sts

toe 9 = per pattern = 4 sts (so, 1 stitch more than the pattern at this point, it gives a little blunter toe end.  I ended up adding a row, I thought there would be fewer - but if I decreased any faster, it wouldn't have laid as flat, or would have had to resort to stairstep edges and I was trying to keep them round.

 

toe 7= 

toe 8=  

scan0010.jpg

Edited by Granny Square
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44 minutes ago, Granny Square said:

Here is what I did with swatch#2: (per pattern means decrease 1 at each end)

foot=19 sts

toe row 1=sc across=19sts

tow 2= sc across=19sts

tow 3=per pattern=17 sts17 sts

toe 4=  sc 7, sc2tog, PM (place marker), sc to end=16 sts

toe 5=  per pattern, MM (move marker to this row's stitch made into marked stich))=14 sts  (also not a bad idea to mark the first and last stitch at this point)

toe 6=  sc2tog, sc to marked stitch, sc marked stitch and following stitch together, MM, sc to within 2 stiches of end, sc2tog=11 sts

toe 7= as row 6 =8 sts

toe 8 = per pattern = 6 sts

toe 9 = per pattern = 4 sts (so, 1 stitch more than the pattern at this point, it gives a little blunter toe end.  I ended up adding a row, I thought there would be fewer - but if I decreased any faster, it wouldn't have laid as flat, or would have had to resort to stairstep edges and I was trying to keep them round.

 

toe 7= 

toe 8=  

scan0010.jpg

Granny Square I think you figured it out as this one looks good to me!  

 

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I like that! I’ll try it right now. I did work half of the toe in a similar manner to the heel to see what would happen. Here’s what it looks like. I’ll try your method in the other half and see which one I like better!

933B0190-25D2-4C60-81E5-207A52332F80.jpeg

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You're welcome, glad it worked!  That short-row heel in your last photo might work (it does in my head, at least) if you folded it, like your (real) heel is - in other words, that piece would be the toe for both sides of the sock, but you'd have to sew it to the other side of the sock.  (good idea to try, I don't think that would have occurred to me!)

Edited by Granny Square
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