Hawaii Short Row Heels

Okay, so we have beautiful sunshine today, but I didn't get outdoors to take photos until a few minutes ago, after 3:30 p.m., so everything is in the shade already ~ late time of year, you know, so the sun gets low early.

Nonetheless, here is the now discontinued but no-longer-lingering-in-my-stash yarn "Memories" from Knit Picks in colorway Hawaii.

Though I did opt for vanilla socks, I got a bit crazy and decided to use a short-row heel in garter stitch per Cookie A's directions on page 17 in Sock Innovation.

Historically, short-row heels have not been for me. First and foremost is because short-row heels just don't hold the same power or sheer transcendent joy for me that heel flap/gusset combos do. Why, you ask? Because nothing in knitting can beat the sheer engineering genius of working the heel turn. Nothing. Nada. Zip. I kid you not. No matter how many socks I make, or sweaters, mittens, hats, scarves, afghans, etc., for me, the absolute pinnacle of knitting is achieved in the heel turn. I'd be willing to bet most of you would agree.

Short-row heels, on the other hand, just don't hold that kind of fascination for me. Plus, when I see other folks wear socks with srh, I think the fabric in the heel area looks strained, as though it is always pulling against the stitches. To my mind, this would be a place for potential wear or at the least, some sort of excessive hole-age (yeah, that's not a word, but you get my drift), so this is the second reason I tend not to use srh for my socks.

But, lately I've encountered some problems with the fit of my heel flap socks. This started with the first Merike sock and continued with Pomatomus: the heels of both were jacked and required significant ripping, on Merike at least two times per sock if that can be believed. Sure, there were many years in between the first and second Merike, with shitty notes in the wake, but you'd think I could work a decent-sized heel-flap since it's my favorite part of knitting. The heel for Pomatomus was so big that I ended up going down at least one needle size and taking out two rows of length on the heel flap. I've noticed that with my own basic 64, 68, or 72 sts patterns that I've been encountering the same problem with baggy looseness around the heel. I don't know about you, but I just hate that excess fabric there. (Nah, don't get excited and say I have skinny ankles or I lost weight. No chance. Never had skinny ankles, and the day I lose weight, well, hell will either freeze over or pigs will fly.)

So, the long and short of it is that I decided to go for the srh even though they don't really do it for me. Now, this sock DOES fit much better in the heel than my previous two socks do despite using the same yarn and needle size. Another completely unexpected bonus is that this type of heel takes a hell of a lot less time to work. I couldn't believe it. I am a pretty slow knitter, yet look how far I got on sock #1:

I am almost ready to begin the toe. Now to decide whether or not to do a star toe or the standard flat angled toe for my stubby straight across Flintstone toes?

It doesn't look like that straining against the stitches action is occurring here, though, at least not while hanging from a tree.

I wonder if this will convert me? I wonder if this will cause me to stop making socks because srh aren't as fun to make?

Yep, as predicted, finished the toe, so one down, one to go: