Thursday 18 September 2008

Searching for the right heel.

I'm sort of picky. I like things to look right together. This shows up in my living room where things look just a little too much like someone went all HGTV, with a dash of Martha on top. Of course this is my living room. That is what is under the books, the movie pile, the general mail we haven't dealt with yet, and dust, but gosh darn it under the stuff, it looks pretty good if I do say so myself.

With socks, I like the heel to look right. Some socks wouldn't look right to me with an afterthought heel. Some socks need a heel that carries the look of the lacy uppers. Some socks, the patterning of the heel is part of the design.


I know the Big Fabel socks are just a simple plain sock, but the scale and size of the yarn and their sturdy purpose made me decide this was a good time to go looking for a good sturdy and most of all simple short row heel heel.

I went just a little overboard looking for the perfect heel. I searched for a few hours, I tried a couple of kinds of heels, I used a friends no wrap heel, I thought about doing Maia's Toe Up Gussetted Heel. I worked a heel on this sock at least 5 times doing various short row techniques, and being a picky sort wasn't satisfied with any of them.

This morning, reading more short row heel stuff, I came across Lucy Neatby's short row heel. I was looking at it and thinking, this is a heel I already know. I've put it aside because it makes a strong plain sturdy heel.

That is when it struck me. This is a workmanlike heavy yarn. What this yarn really needs is a workmanlike heavy heel...

D'uoh. I really should wear a dunce cap while I finish knitting these socks and I probably need just a little more coffee to wake up my brain.

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