Knitting Top-Down Socks, Part 2 - The heel flap

First of all, I would like to brag that I am now an aunt! Kelly had her baby, surprisingly a BOY when we all expected a girl, Christian Sheldon, at 2:06 today, and they are both doing really well :D I am going to meet him tonight. In the meantime, while I wait for my mother to get ready for our trip to MD, I will do sock knitting part 2.

There are different ways of doing heels. I think the easiest to learn for a first time sock knitter is the heel flap heel. (The only other way I know is a short-row heel, but there are probably even more out there that I haven't learned.)

Here are two previous projects to show the difference. The heel on each of these is done in a different color than the main sock. That is not necessary, but it shows off the heel better for my teaching purposes!

Heel flap heel:


Short-row heel:




Ok, here is my sock so far:

Now to do the heel, we are going to work on half of the total stitches. We have 64 total, so divide that in half for 32. Place 32 stitches on one needle. These will be our heel stitches. We are going to knit back and forth on these 32 stitches, rather than around in a circle on all stitches.


So to start, slip the first stitch to the new needle without knitting it.


Then knit the other 31 stitches left on the needle. You have this:


Turn your work around to the purl side.


Again, slip the first stitch.

Purl the other 31 stitches.


We are going to do these two rows (S1, K31 and then S1, P31 - S meaning slip) a total of 14 times (28 rows total). Just slip the first stitch, knit the row, then turn, slip, purl, etc.

When you have finished that, your heel flap will look like this:


And I don't have time today to add directions on turning the heel, so our heel is not complete...Part 2.1 will have to wait until after the baby visit!