5 good reasons to knit an afterthought heel

Ta - da! Self stripe socks are just so satisfying and with an afterthought heel they are doubly so. These socks are knitted from a Uneek sock yarn kit in the most fabulous brightly coloured stripes - they very definition of addictive knitting as you just want to race through to the next magical colour change.

Have you worked an afterthought heel before? There are a number of advantages to this most impressive of heels:

1. No need to try on until the tube is completed - ideal for travel. No one wants to be whipping off their shoes in public to try on a sock WIP after all.

2. It doesn't interrupt the flow of the stripe.

3. You can get the heel exactly where you want

4. It always looks impressive when you take scissors to the yarn

5. It’s a great opportunity to play with colour and use a contrast yarn. Or to eke out a 50g sock skein by adding contrast heels and toes.

If the idea of actually cutting your knitting is faintly terrifying, let me offer a few words of reassurance. It really isn’t as scary as you might think and with a few simple steps it’s even fun. I have a step by step tutorial for you if you want to have a try - just tap the button below.

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How to knit a Super Sock Snake

Super Sock Snake

£3.50

This is a short tutorial for a different way to knit socks two-at-a-time.
Knit a long tube with a toe at each end, then snip to separate them and add cuffs and afterthought heels.

Photos are added to walk you through the process.

And if your nerve fails you and you can’t bear to take scissors to your knitting you could always turn it into a skinny scarf or graft the ends together to make a cowl - win win!

Free version - a non-print friendly version of this tutorial can be found on my blog - here

Yarn: Sockweight/fingering weight yarn
Needles: 2.5mm

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The Slipstream Socks

Slipstream Socks - link to purchase

These toe-up socks were originally published as the Socially Distant Socks two years ago, at the height of the Covid epidemic when no social gathering was complete without the words ‘socially distanced of course’.

Times have moved on and although I loved the socks, I didn’t like the name and the reminder of some very difficult times. I was also unhappy with a little aspect of the stitch design so I took the opportunity to re-work them and also rename them at the same time.

They are now the Slipstream Socks - because with these regular stitches they really do slip quickly off the needles, and the regular smooth ridges really reminded me of the patterns that water makes as it smoothly slides around obstacles in it’s way.

The yarn is the beautiful Eden Cottage Yarns Brimham 4ply in the Pumpkin Seeds colourway

What's in a name?

Toe Beans - toe-up shortie socks with a hint of lace

Sometimes a design starts with a name and grows from there. Sometimes you knit something because you like it and the name comes later. Sometimes you rack your brains for a name and end up asking your husband.

This time the name came in the form of ‘feline intervention’.

I knit these super-short trainer socks with a cute lace panel up the front of the foot. It was only after I was trying them on - and Ebony decided to help with the photo that I realised that they look a little like cat paw prints through snow. Toe Beans seemed the obvious name - although I couldn’t persuade Ebony to show his for the camera.

After trying a few different styles of shortie socks I have realised that I don’t like anything around my ankle, it’s a strange sensory thing. Socks need to either be a decent mid-calf length or to stop straight after the heel - I can’t be doing with cuffs flapping around my ankle.

So I knit these how I like them. Toe up, short row heel, tiny bit of lace for interest.

Of course, if you wanted to make them longer you could absolutely just carry on knitting and have a conventional pair of socks with the pattern just up the front of the leg. But as they stand, each sock takes a fraction under 20g yarn, so they are ideal for stashbusting opportunities.

As will be my new policy going forward, the Toe Beans pattern will be available on both my Payhip platform and on Ravelry, but the only links I will be embedding in my social media posts will be Payhip ones until I can be sure that the issues with Ravelry accessibility are resolved.

There is an early bird discount - TOEBEANSEB - which gets you 25% off the purchase price until 24th July 2020, and that will work on either sales platform.

Toe Beans

Plain feet and party legs

The phrase ‘plain feet and party legs’ has been going around in my head for weeks now, for some reason. And as I cast on for a nice soothing pair of self stripe socks I found myself thinking about jazzing them up a little. Not too much mind - we don’t want to go wild- but just a little something to make them a little more party-like.

And so I came up with the Introverts Party Socks - a nice plain foot to cruise along and then a slightly jazzier cuff with a single chevron front and back to help show off those colourful stripes. Slightly bolder introverts could always run the chevron along the length of the foot as well if feeling sufficiently brave.

Like all the best ideas this was spontaneous and totally unplanned. So many folk have asked about a pattern though that I thought I could run this as an informal (and free KAL) over on my Instagram and of course, here. Please bear in mind though that this has not yet been through my usual testing/editing process so a few errors may linger here and there.

I will be making this available as a paid for pattern on Ravelry in due course, but for now if you’d like to join in our quietly festive, Introverts Party Socks KAL then please watch this space for updates or follow me over on Instagram.

Revisiting old patterns - old friends

Do you ever knit a pattern more than once? Do you have an old favourite that you like to knit over and again or are you of the ‘so many patterns, so little time’ school of thought.

I usually waver in the direction of the latter. Between designs and knitting for myself and family I rarely have the time or the inclination to revisit old patterns. But just recently i found myself doing just that.

I had a lovely skein of self stripe - this is Witchy from London House Yarns - and i wanted to knit something just a little bit more complex than a plain vanilla sock. But not too complex that I’d take the emphasis away from the lovely seasonal colours. Then I remembered an old design of mine and thought it would be fun to re-knit it.

The Expresso sock was named, partly because the original colourway was Cafe au Lait (from the now no-longer-dyeing Berry Colorful Yarnings). That made me think of coffee and the habit my lovely Nana had of referring to an Espresso as an Expresso. In her mind it was an Expresso and nothing would dissuade her. That seemed apt, as this combination of infrequent cables really made the sock zip along - adding to the self stripe fun.

Do stripy socks really go faster? I’m not sure but all I can say is that I cast this on just to do the toe yesterday - and despite my best intentions to finish a sweater WIP I’m already at the heel.

And just for fun - this pattern will be free until midnight Wednesday Oct 23rd (GMT).

Just use code EXPRESSO

Socks - do you block yours?

It’s always a bit of a tricky one and something that people can have strong opinions, on but I love the process of blocking in general and blocking socks in particular. There’s something very pleasing about seeing two weirdly shaped tubes suddenly and magically become sock-shaped on the blockers. And yes, I know that you can just block them on your feet (and I certainly do this with my kids socks) but it is much easier to take a photograph of your finished sock masterpieces when they are on blockers as opposed to when they are on your feet - ask me how I know?

For me, its part of the whole closure that comes at the end of a project. In the same way as you come to the end of a good book and you are reluctant to move on to the next one whilst the characters are still alive and kicking in your mind. Coming to the end of a much loved sock project is much the same. These socks in the photo - knit with yarn from London House Yarns - accompanies me on most of my summer journeys and our happy family memories (and a bit of sand) are knit into each stitch of these socks.

I like to take my time, tidying up the loose ends and emptying out the project bag of assorted bits and pieces. In an ideal world I’ll also put my needles neatly away but I know in practice they often end up randomly in a drawer waiting for me to rifle through them in a desperate search for elusive 2.5mm needles.

Do you have any “end of project” rituals or things that you like to do at the end of a project - or is it just me?