Adventures in sock heel design

I'm starting to think I might have a pair of Boxing Day socks on my hands! Or not, because there are only a few days left and I still have a lot of baking to do. Still... pretty, right? And they're coming along so quickly.

Today I want to show you my idea for adapting my vanilla sock pattern to feature a more hard-wearing heel. Wearing out is 90% of a sock heel's job, and the most practical solution to that is to knit socks with afterthought heels you can rip out and replace whenever. But I'm already more than my share of practical so I'm leaning toward a sock whose heel you can just darn a lot. And ideally, not so soon after the first wear.

 

I'm not sure why I've never done a stranded-stitch heel before, because it's kinda fun. 

I brought in the secondary colour about a third of the way down the flap, with a plan to finish with it once I picked up the stitches for the foot.

Bit of a dog's breakfast, that heel turn! This is my third attempt, and the stitches are still pretty loose at the top, but I have two green tails to run in there and I should be able to snug things up while I do that job. 

From here it kinda reminds me of an elbow patch on a corduroy blazer! Let's see if I can get a closeup...

Because I only did one stitch in each of the two colours, the floats across the back are minimal - just enough to hold in warm air, give a little cushion, and serve as channels for any future darning yarn. Not sure I love the lighter concentration on the heel against the stronger colours of the rugby stripes, but I can get around that by striping near the toe, and maybe I'll do that. Of course it means even more ends to run in. Ends I can use to reinforce pressure points before a hole forms, now that I think of it.

H'mmm.

Naturally, all I want to do for the rest of the day is knit these things, and if I didn't have to do that baking, and some wrapping, and some meal planning, and laundry, I totally would. 

 

SIGH

Hope your holiday preps and/or parties are going along beautifully - and thanks especially for taking a little time out from all that to visit with me today. I'll see you next week after the holiday dust settles... but in the meantime, Merry Christmas from me and my Chompy Sock!