Bronx Girl Knits!

I got a bit sidetracked this weekend. I never did cast on for the front of the doll. I was chugging along nicely on Ian's sock until I did the heel. I used a contrasting color for the heel as planned, but I really wasn't crazy about the look of it:

Now I admit I kept going for quite awhile, knowing I didn't like it. I figured Ian would love it no matter what but then it occurred to me that I didn't have to. It's a small sock which makes it prefect for trying something new. I decided to try a short row heel to see if I liked the look better. First I went to the Cool Socks Warm Feet book. The sock I want to make myself from my STR (it's the Mermaid sock) is in there and it has a short row heel. I could have been reading Ancient Greek for all the good that did me. It's not like I haven't done short rows before, hell I've done the beginning of the Shapely Tank numerous times (don't ask) and we went over short rows in my finishing class but these instructions seem monumentally complex. So I went here next. Better but still not quite as black and white as I wanted it. Finally I went here and it was dumbed down enough for even me.

All wasn't smooth though. I had to explore this new way of doing the heel. At first I left no stitch unwrapped but that made the heel far too pointy. Then I decided to leave four in the middle to round it a bit but as I was finishing I realized I had dropped a stitch at the beginning. So there was much ripping going on. In fact I was so damn frustrated I didn't knit anything on Saturday at all. On Sunday I went back to the sock started fresh and it went like a breeze:


Now honestly I'd leave a few more unwrapped if I were to do it again. The heel is still a bit too pointy for me but far, far better than it was. I also have some holes along the middle but as I get better at picking up the wraps that will improve. Overall it is an amazingly fast and simple heel. I won't use it for all socks but I will use is again. By the way the sock is being modeled by the cat statue I have on my desk. Here she is sans sock:


So all in all I'm glad I tried it. Never hurts to try something new.