Diane’s “Round” Heel
March 23rd, 2007
Toe Up (Click to enlarge)
Details: For the round heel you start with a similar beginning as the Short Row heel. First you create a gusset by increasing by an inch or two, then you start the first half of a short-row heel. Instead of going back over your wrapped stitches with more short rows, you knit them (and the wraps). Then what is similar to a gusset is knit, where you knit back and forth over the heel, decreasing every row until the original cast-on stitches remains. I’m not entirely sure I knit this heel properly according to the directions, but you can find a link to those below.
Advantages: There are no picked up stitches, for those that dislike dealing with the heel flaps. This heel doesn’t hug the arch of your foot quite as much as other methods do, which can be good for those with sensitive feet, or little to no arch.
Disadvantages: It doesn’t seem to fit well to a large ankle or a deep heel, as there is a lot of stretching on the top of the ankle.
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i am tryijng to do the kaffe fassett new yarn socks but the directions are miserable. they call for the round heel and i think that that would be best for this design to carry the stripes properly…so far the only round hill directions i can find are from the toe up….i have already knit the sock from the top down and am ready to do the heel. do you have any suggestions for a round heel pattern starting at the top??? tks,
It’s possible that the round heel I did isn’t the same one as in Kaffe Fassett’s book. I don’t have the book so I can’t really look at it and tell you. Every where I look the top down “round heel” is also called a “french heel” This website has some simple instructions on doing a round heel: [http://www.socknitters.com/Tips/heels_by_the_number.htm](http://www.socknitters.com/Tips/heels_by_the_number.htm) I don’t know how familiar you are with heel flap heels, but it’s basically in that style of heel. Let me know if that doesn’t clarify things for you.
I bought a pattern for domino knitted socks for Regia yarn in England, they required a round heel which I have never seen before, It took me a whole week of unpicking and reknitting before I understood what I was doing. Thought the instructions were really bad and I am quite an experienced knitter. Now I have made 7 pairs one after the other just to master the round heel and remember it for future knitting….
That’s too bad the instructions were so poor!