Another new skill for my knitting toolbox! Toe-up sock with an Afterthought Heel!

Just about anything you want to accomplish will present a learning curve. I’ve been kind of happily cruising along, knitting dishcloths. They’re mindless and I can crank them out fast. They are nice to have around as little gifts for your dinner hosts or a housewarming or an office birthday. There are quite a variety of patterns to try, but I usually end up just knitting on the diagonal and calling it good.

I’ve knit several pairs of socks. I’ve worked them up with two 9” circular needles, with four double pointed needles, with one 32” circular…all from the top down. And now, I’m learning how to work from the toe up. I thought it would be great because I wouldn’t have to do a Kitchener Stitch to finish the toe. The Kitchener Stitch is a way of joining live stitches in a way that appears like it’s been knit normally. Seriously…it’s kinda like magic. For some reason, I have stumbled over it for the last three weeks. 

I’m finding on most video tutorials, the instructor knits WAY faster than I do. I never learned to knit Continental where you hold the yarn with your left hand and pick it up on your right needle. I knit English style where you “throw” your yarn by holding it in your right hand, throwing it up and over the needle on each stitch. It isn’t fast, but it does give a beautiful even stitch for me. A woman came up to me in the waiting room at OSU a few months ago and told me I could knit much faster if I knit Continental. I smiled sweetly and said, “Thanks, but I can’t chew bubble gum and walk either. This is far lest frustrating for me, even if it isn’t very fast.”

As I worked on the toe up sock, I discovered two things I was going to have to learn. The Kitchener Stitch was still going to prove to be my nemesis in this project because it is how you close an “Afterthought Heel”. Which brings me to the second learning hurdle. In order to knit an afterthought heel, you actually have to CUT your work! I was horrified. How on earth do you do this?

This was a first for me…CUTTING into my knitting to insert a heel. Scary!

I followed along in the tutorial, step-by-step and figured it out as I went. It turns out, you pick up a row of stitches on one end of your circular needle, then pick up another row…leaving a row in between. Once you have them on the needles, you take you scissors and cut through the yarn on the middle stitch of that in-between row. Then you use a tapestry needle and unravel that thread back to the beginning of the row in each direction. You tuck the yarn that’s left hanging to the inside of the sock. When you are done with the heel, you weave those ends in and…voila! You have a heel! What sorcery is this?!?!

After trying several times to close the heel with that dreaded Kitchener, I finally found a video that is in slow motion. (https://youtu.be/9dYP_GeHLG0 ) You have two setup stitches, then you have a sequence of four steps that you repeat. If you repeat the steps to yourself as you do them, it’s a lot easier. I finished the first sock of this pair last evening. Mr. FixIt was off at the former Mrs. FixIt’s house, putting her new treadmill together and that gave me a few hours of uninterrupted silence to figure these new techniques out.

Every time you learn something new, it becomes a tool in your toolbox. With enough tools, and self-confidence, you can move on from dishcloths to socks and on to bigger projects…like a sweater. Gail says they are easier to knit than socks, so I’m willing to try. I spent some time last night looking at yarns so I can order some for the sweater pattern Gail sent me. Stretch you mind. Learn new things. Step out of your comfort zone. Whether you are staying home because of the pandemic or because you’re snowed in, take advantage of that time and learn something new. Our brains need exercise, too!

We are expecting 5-8” of snow by tomorrow afternoon. Let the knitting commence!

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“Intelligent people are always ready to learn. Their ears are open for knowledge.”

Proverbs 18:15 NLT