My Heel Flap Anke socks

This is one for the big foots amongst us.

The problem with heel flaps socks and me is getting the flap long enough to go over my heel which results in a lot of picked up stitches to get rid of before the instep.

While doing Sim's Heel Flap socks I found for some reason, dec every 2 row count (every round) didn't sit right. I experimented with keeping the every 4th row count (2 rounds) on the upper, and reducing the extras for her on the sole side. This looked much better and when she tried on the sock, I decided that the decreases could have been done evenly along the sole side.

Now for me. On went my best fitting heel flap socks, which I have worn a hole in and badly need replacing. Now for the pinch and pull and counted back that I could have finished 10 stitches back and calculated that if I reduced 2 sts on the upper ev 4th row (2 rounds) and 2 on the 8th row (4th round) I would have a lovely convergence in just the right place. P.E.R.F.E.C.T. My new best fitting cotton ankle socks.

To make mine:

Recommend you look at Stephanie's heel flap tutorial, as these are based on her technique.

CO 72 using industrial 2:2 rib, I join my ribs on the front bed and transfer them both to the empty needle on the back bed to obtain 72 live stitches.
T3; R16; 2:2 rib; N/N. Do transfer for circular, no reset, T4.5, CX/CX cont to RC 24. RC000.

Heel over 36 sts:
Row 1: T4.5 , GX/BX, right arrow, ev alt pusher in WP; 1st and 36th are always in WP.
Row 2: GX/N
Return pusher 1 and 36 to WP
Repeat these 3 actions to RC56. Remember to TAKE OFF ARROW.
Turn heel numbers: 26, 2tog, 1. Next row: 12, 2tog, 1.. etc.

Take off machine, as it's done in cotton blend, there are too many stitches to stretch across, unfortunately. Using 2.25mm pick up 30 sts along heel flaps and knit 3 rounds. You can put them back onto the machine at this point but even so, it's still a very very tight fit. I never solved the problem of the stitches loosening too much in the centre of the heel, as seen in the photo, not a too bad when the enlarged stitches are shared amongst it's neighbours. When I do them again, I'll knit the next decrease round by hand and the next making the row counter 10, then put back onto the machine to see if that solves that problem.

Gusset Decreases: dec on upper every 4th row (RC 8), moving the 18 sts one needle to the left. Starting on RC8, dec 2 sts on the sole side, again moving 18 sts on needle to the right = 4 sts decreased in total on every 8th RC. (seq: -4 RC8; -2 RC12; -4 RC16; -2 RC 20 and so on) until 72sts remain.

Rotate and continue to RC 170.

Toe: dec 4 sts on rows 170, 178, 184, 190, 196, 200, 204, 208, 212, 216 then ev 2 rc to 8 sts.

Sew cuff, kitchener toe.

Passap 75s Socks

Edit 6Apr09: I've put Passap 75s pattern on Ravelry. download here.

I'm experimenting with tuck lace socks for the top of Sim's socks. I thought she'd like a little bit of girly on her black socks. Similar to the ones by Knittaxa's Mein Muster, I based mine on Passap Pattern 75 from the first little purple book and is achieved by alternating CX and DX with 1 pusher in RP at regular intervals depending on stitch count. 4R CX/CX, Black; 4R DX/DX, Grey, ev 5th pusher in RP.

eg on my 60 st - every 5th stitch is tucked, on the 64st, every 4th.

One pair is all black, exactly the same pattern as the two colour ones, except I couldn't work out how to do her preferred heel flap. She loved the short row heel anyway!

Others in the little purple Passap book Vertical stripe:Pattern 91 Checks: Pattern 111 Using scraps in nice patterned stripes: Pattern 36 Spots: Pattern 47 2col honeycomb: pattern 73.

The pattern to make these:
Front bed needles start on left on 30. needle seq: 1.11.11. to end .1 ending on needle 30 on right. on the back, 11.11.11 to last three 111; I didn't count how many there were in total, for 2:2 industrial rib, gave me 60 st.
Handle down, rack one needle to left.
Cuff:
Colour 1:
Blue strippers, N/N, T2, 1R,
CX/CX T3.5, 2R, rack one needle to right
N/N, T3.5, 1R. reset RC 000
N/N, T3.5, 20R.
Transfer sts to the back bed, I put the two front bed stitches together and transferred them into the single vacant needle.
Leg:
Black strippers, handle up, GX/N, T4.5 (for the rest of sock), 2R, transfer 15 sts each side to front bed.
(If doing other colours- Colour 2:)
pusher set up: starting on front bed, left side, 4WP (up), 1RP (down) right around both beds, in continuous sequence, ending with very last one on left hand side of back bed DOWN.
DX/DX, 4R, Col 2
CX/CX, 4R, Col 1
continue this 8R sequence to row 143 (col 1), lock on left.
Heel, Col 1:
BX/GX, work short rows to 10 sts (put some weight on heel) and back (lock on left). work one row on the back bed (keeping to pattern).
Foot:
Pusher set up: back bed remain unchanged; Front bed, last needle (on right) is DOWN, the rest are up and will be making stripes on the sole of the sock,
Col 2: DX/ DX, 4R
Col 1: CX/CX, 4R
Continue this 8R sequence to row 142 (black)
Toe:
Col 1:, CX/CX
Pick up 3rd st from each end, put it on top on 2nd and at the same time, pick up 1st and 2nd together and put where 3rd and 2nd were, on all ends. 4 sts in total, each decrease.
on rows 142, 150, 156, 162, 166, 170, 174, 178 then ev 2 RC (single row) until 4 sts are left.

Here it is stretched out, which they will do in places, when worn.

Suggest Pusher Set up for these size socks or whichever combination you like, BUT the LAST PUSHER ON EACH BED MUST BE DOWN.
48 sts - every 4th
52 sts - every 5th x 2 and 6st x 1 in the centre
56 sts - every 7th
60 sts - every 5th
64 sts - every 4th
68 sts - every 4th x 8 and 5th x 2
72 sts - every 4th or 6th
78 sts - every 4th x 9 and 3rd x 1; or 4th x 8 and 7st x 1 in the centre.

Garage Clean up - What's in the Box?

Well... this week Dotter #1 came down for a two day cleanupathon on her junk she's storing in my garage, taking up space where we could actually park a car. I assembled 2 x metal shelves. which we put sorted junk. She has ordered a bookshelf for her room and will take books away in a couple of weeks. I do believe we have both had enough of cleaning up the garage until then. I reckon there's about another 2 to 4 hours to completely tidy it up for good, once the books have been rehomed.

We threw out 3 bins of recycling and 2 of rubbish. I didn't want to go through all my boxes, but decided to sort anything with paper and yarn. My contribution to the recycling.. I only have to keep papers for 7 years and 2001 - so out of here..

Then, packed right at the back, one box of wool and acrylic, so much bigger than I remembered. And no, I didn't think there was almost 3kg of acrylic 5ply!!! 29 x 100gm. I met a lady who knits for Eritrea, and will wait till I see her again and see if she wants -3kg of socks or rugs. either or, they can be done on the machine. And the wool.. wonderful, wonderful, can't buy it anymore 100% 4ply wool, waxed ready for machine (or hand) in various shades of pink, red, white and natural - 5 x 100g of all but the red 8 x 100g - yep over 3kg of it! And some fine blue wool boucle that isn't so bad as it sounds.. and some rather interesting blue/brown 25g ball of wool/nylon blend, will be good for a short sleeve cardi/shrug. Who knew over 7kg of wool/acrylic would fit in that box!!! Just what I needs - more wool. Oh dear. Thank goodness there was only one box.. ahhhhh.

We certainly put in the effort to get such a good result. We were able to put her bigger items at the back, which will make the final tidy up much easier. We may need to buy another metal shelf or two. Whatever it takes.

Heel Flap Machine Socks

Upated 15 Mar 09:
I've made a second pair, rotating a quarter turn, as per Dresda's Pictorial, picking up the 24 stitches, putting back onto the machine. I used coins as weights in between the beds on the heel flap to keep the stitches in place. It was a lot more fiddling - perhaps it was because it was black and difficult to see (?) Anyway here is it's picture:

Updated 7 Mar 09:

Firstly, my friend Stephanie has an excellent tutorial of doing Dresda's Heel Flap Socks which I'm basing mine on. My daughter prefers heel flap style and I'm using the above as a template. (I also have three to make for my BIL Dave) I'll only expand on where mine vary (so if anything's not clear, check the tutorial for explanation):

Cuff:
Cast on 60, L30, R30, 2:2 Industrial rib = 1rack to left, T1, N/N, 1 R; T5 CX/CX 2R; rack 1 to right, T5, N/N 1R; Reset RC000; 20R.
Trans to back bed. 2 rows GX/N, divide and put 15 from each end onto front bed. RC 000

Legs:
T5, CX/CX 140R.

Heel flap. 30/30

Row 1: T5, GX/BX right arrow; alt pushers = 1xWP, 1xRP. END pushers are always in WP.
Row 2: T5, GX/N (end of this row, reset end pushers to WP and flip lever.)
Repeat these 2 rows 24 times (48 RC)
Heel turn:
T5, GX/BX (REMEMBER to reset the arrow to 0) turn the heel using pushers and moving stitches inwards as per tutorial:
Heel turn numbers for this pair:
Work17, 2tog, work 1, turn (19 stitches worked),
work 6, 2tog, work 1 (slip 1, work 5, 2tog, work 1 = 7 stitches worked, bring slip pusher back into work)
K7, k2tog, k1 turn (slip 1, work 6, 2tog, work 1 = 8 stitches worked, bring slip pusher back into work)
P8, as before, then, K9, P10, K11, until 18 sts remain.

Reposition for gusset decreases:
Take off the machine with 4 x decker combs at halfway point for each quarter eg, back bed = 9 on each comb; front bed = 15 on each comb.

ROTATE 180 and rehang, so it's easier to do gusset decreases. 24 stitches each side must be added for the gusset. (96 total, 48 each bed, 24 each quarter).

THIS DID NOT WORK - there is fabric is too tight to stretch across the beds: pick up 15 each side for the back bed and 9 sts from heel flap for the front bed combs on each side)

Some things that do:
e-wrap 24 sts each side and continue (my machine wont knit ewrap so I had to manually knit 4 rows before it would cooperate). I liked the finished edge, smooth and will graft easily onto the gusset.

Crochet 24 sts each side, either on scrap to undo and kitchener later or in same yarn and continue.

I am going to Different e-wrap shown in the Hand Manipulated Stitches book p37 - knitted back double epwrap cast on - This worked really well. ewrap first needle, wrap around the next bringing the thread back over the original needle and knit off one stitch; then move onto the next. Check that all stitches knit properly on the first CX row, much easier.

(You may have to HAND KNIT added stitches for first row - not with the double knit ewrap it knitted). Put some weights on the sides and on the added stitches. RC 000

Gusset decreases:
Place a marker (pusher in RP works well) at the 15 st mark each side FB:
T5, CX/CX, knit 2 rows = RC 4,
dec 1 st each side; at the 15 stitch mark, TAKE it off the needle and put it onto needle 16 now move stitches along to empty needle as per tutorial,
alternating: racking left then right, moving one stitch to the front bed REMEMBERING to ROTATE it instead of flipping FROM BACK TO FRONT (or you will have these cute little purl stitches interupting the lovely flow of sock AND undo the back bed right end stitch before transferring).
Repeat 26 times, (RC 56), then every round until 60 sts remain (RC64) no reset.

Feet:
T5, CX/CX to row 134 (DAVE 124)

Toes:
Dec 1 st each end (on second needle - leaving the outside stitch running up to the toe) all beds, 4 in total on next then on row 142, 148, 154, 158, 162, 144, then every round till 8 sts remain.

Dave's variation: to RC 124, then toe decreases on row, 132, 138, 1444, 148, 152, 156.

Better late than ever Post about my "new" book

I ordered "A Machine Knitter's Guide to Creating Fabrics: Jacquard, Lace, Intarsia, Ripple and More" by Susanna Lewis and Julia Weissman. It's out of print. It's old, but as luck would have it, my even older machine predates it. There is lots of excellent information and patterns for me to try out.

I did have a bit of a fiddle with one of the patterns in some Noro sock wool. It's an awful sock wool and I wouldn't make socks with it. The slub parts don't go through the machine very well, maybe I'll try it again in a couple of weeks and be patient with it going through the feeder.