Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Short Row Success

Remember these?

BasicBDay-c

Well, I’m still working on them, and I’m quite tickled with the different ways the colors are striping.

BasicLegs

Wide bands on one sock and narrow ones on the other. Not only that, but it looks to me as though the wide stripes are actually reversing direction.

Working the legs has given me lots of time to contemplate heels. Let’s face it; the mind can wander quite a bit in the process of knitting two seven-inch legs with US 1.5 (2.5 mm) needles. K3, P1, repeat ad nauseum… contemplate heels…

As I watched the way this yarn was working up, I resolved to use a short-row heel on them. I didn’t want to take a chance that working a heel and gusset would mess up the spiraling, what with all that extra fabric.

OK then, short rows it would be.

First attempt, using the Yarn-Over method here… epic fail. I must have been paying too much attention to the hockey game on TV, because my row count was off. The heel was sort of tilted to one side. And there were holes. Great big ole honkin’ ones.

Rip. Regroup.

Second attempt, using the conventional Wrap and Turn… epic fail. The heel was straight, but again with the great big honkin’ holes.

Hiss. Curse. Frighten Husband. Rip. Regroup.

Just for kicks, I tried the Yarn-Over method again. You guessed it… holes.

Then it occurred to me that if I was having issues with short row heels, it was just barely within the realm of possibility that one or two other people might have the same issues.

Off to Ravelry, where all the cool fiber-crafters hang out, waiting to answer questions. I did a quick forum search on short-row heels, and before too long I found a person whose problem was exactly like mine.

I realized that it wasn’t the K3tog that was giving me so much trouble, it was that ridiculous P3togTbl. No matter how careful I was, it was stretching out and getting ugly. Imagine my joy when I found a link to this post.

Her short-row method made sense to me. It involves picking up the wraps, working the stitch, and then lifting the wraps over.

On Christmas day, sitting in the living room with my aunt while she worked on her garter-stitch scarf, I attempted my fourth short-row heel on the same sock.

When I got done, I held the sock up at arms length and looked at it. Then I held it up close to my nose and inspected it. Then I danced around the living room, somehow managing to avoid knocking over both the tree and my beer.

No holes on this side.
ShortRowHeel01

No holes on that side
ShortRowHeel02

And the pretty spiral started right back up.

Life is good!

6 comments:

Karen said...

Yesssss! Go you! I do love that yarn -- what kind is it? (says the person who is too freakin' lazy to go check your Rav projects and find out for herself...)
I'm with you re. flashing and pooling -- lovelovelove it!

Kathleen Taylor said...

WAHOO!!!!

I love Ravelry.

Anonymous said...

Yay, Anree!!! I'll have to try that technique; I have thus far had no success with short-row heels. They are the holey-est of the holey. Thanks for sharing your adventure and the solution to the problem!

I agree with Kathleen--Ravelry rocks!

Anna said...

Yey, for success with Short Row Heels! :)

:kram:

Alwen said...

And also yay for the spiral starting back up again!

Anonymous said...

looks awesome - I love your spirals! :)