Transcription
Hello everyone, welcome to the Earth Tones Girl Channel and the No Fear Sock Knitting Class online. Today's class is the long-awaited Shadow Wrap Short Row Q&A class. I was going to call it "The Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Shadow Wrap Short Row Heels," but I thought that was a little presumptuous and a little assuming because I don't know everything that there is to know. I'm going to share with you today what I know about Shadow Wrap Short Rows and heels and its many applications. So, there is going to be, hence the name change, so there's going to be quite a bit in this class. I have nine topics to cover. There's some of it is just going to be, um, sharing samples. Some of it will be actual demonstrations and hands-on tutorials. So, there is a lot to cover. So I'm going to just get right into it, but I want to just give you a brief overview of how this class will be laid out. Again, there are nine topics to cover in here and then lots of subcategories in there, and everything will be timestamped and in the description box for you down below. So, if there is something that you'd like to jump right ahead to see, you will be able to do that by just clicking on the timestamp with the description right next to it, and it will take you right to that segment of this video.
Okay, another thing, uh, I want to say a big thank you to everybody who submitted their questions, um, in my last episode, episode in January, regular podcast episode, I submitted a request to people to send me questions about the Shadow Wrap Short Row Heels, and many, many, many of you did. So thank you very much. Um, I did have one person that said they would like everything to be included in one video, and while I would love to do that, it, it's just, it's just not feasible, um, because this episode would be really, really long. So, um, there will be links, and as I get to different segments, I will explain where links are to find certain things, um, and we'll cover all of it in just a bit.
So, what are we going to be talking about today? Uh, looking down at my very extensive notes here, so bear with me for looking down. We're going to cover direction, so how can you knit your Shadow Wrap Short Row heel top-down, toe-up? Where to start the heel? How to customize your heel? Shadow Wrap Short Row heel as an afterthought heel, as an afterthought toe. Knitting the Shadow Wrap Short Row heel in a contrasting color, two at a time, and also changing to contrasting color without breaking the yarn. Integrity of your heel versus integrity of a short row heel versus a heel flap and gusset. Uh, there were a lot of questions about that. Fixing mistakes, and fixing mistakes. Now, that is a huge one that I have had many, many times over the years. So we are going to cover that little annoying blip of color that you get if you're working with a contrasting color, as well as how to fix dropped twin and triple stitches. I can hear the roar of excitement from here. So there is a lot, um, there is a lot to cover. So enough chitchat and intro, and let's jump right into it. As always, as you're watching, if you have questions or comments, please leave them in the description box down below. Uh, if something, if a particular segment needs to be flushed out a little bit more, don't worry, there will be follow-up, uh, tutorials because I've already made notes on two potential follow-up, uh, hands-on tutorials for this class. So enough, let's get into it.
So, topic number one in today's lesson is going to be about direction. One of the more common questions I get is, "Can the Shadow Wrap Short Row heel be knit toe-up?" The answer is a resounding yes. Now, just looking at this sock, you wouldn't be able to tell whether I knit it top-down or toe-up. As you can see, the heel, there we go, that looks pretty good. As you can see, this heel is the same in either direction. So, if I'm knitting this way, I am working one half of the heel exactly as directed in the instructions, then I turn, and I'm working the rest of the heel. If I were knitting toe-up, it would be, let's move down a little bit, it would be the same thing. I work my toe, I work the foot, I start working the first half of my heel, then I work the second half of my heel and continue down the leg. There is no need at all to modify the directions in any way. They are knit the same. And as always, the increases, the twin stitches, and triple stitches are exactly the same in both directions. Now, for the sharp-eyed among you, when I did my Shadow Wrap Short Row heel tutorial the first time, this is the little sample that I used to knit the heel. This sample was knit top-down. Technically top-down. However, for the sharp-eyed among you, there were only a few people that noticed it. When I applied this to my mannequin, I actually reversed the heel and put it on, quote, upside down. So, indirectly, I answered the question right from the beginning that yes, this can be worked top-down and toe-up. So that answers that question.
The next big question we have to look at, which I also get quite often, is, "When do we start the heel?" Okay, whether you're knitting top-down or toe-up. So, let's have a look at that. Whether you are working your socks top-down or toe-up, another big question is, "Where to start the heel?" It is a little bit more obvious when you're working top-down. Start your cuff, which is here. You're going to work your leg, and then just start your heel. Okay, there doesn't need to be any more. You don't need to do any increasing unless you need to for your ankle. But just a plain, straightforward sock, you work your cuff, work your leg, start your heel. There we go. Now, it's a little bit different when you're working toe-up. What you want to do for toe-up, you've worked your toe to toe pocket, as I heard, um, oh my gosh, Nimble Needles, I'm blanking on his name, but he used that expression, "toe pocket," and I thought it was so cute. So, you've worked your little toe pocket, then you've worked your foot. Now, where do you start in here? Okay, what you usually want to do is try your sock on. When your sock, the portion that's already been knit, when this portion lines up with your ankle bone, that's when you start the heel. The average that will give you about 2 inches from the starting point to the center back of your heel. That will give you approximately 2 inches. This distance between my fingers. Okay, let's look at that on a mannequin because I can't get my foot up here. So, in theory, okay, let's just say this little rise here on my mannequin, I'm going to bring this up a little bit. Let's say that's the ankle bone. So, you've worked your toe, you've worked your foot. When you reach this little spot right here, I'm going to keep my finger there. There's a tiny, tiny little mark on the mannequin. When you've reached this point, if you look, you're right at that same point, approximately. Okay, if you've tried your sock on, and that will give you that distance. This distance again is not an absolute. The average is 2 to 3 inches, depends on your foot. Okay, so I do suggest, oops, I do suggest trying it on again. When it lines up with your ankle bone, which is right about this distance, okay, then it brings you right down to here again. That's about two inches, two to three inches depending on your foot. Okay.
Now, another thing that I like to do for myself for my top-down, that's my usual go-to method for my top-down socks. I will work my leg, work my heel, then I count how many rounds from the end of the heel, which would be the end because I'm working top-down. I count from the number of rounds from the end of the heel to where I start my toe. Now, this is purple here. Um, this is kind of a darker sock, but it's purple here, and then I started my toe in green. So, this distance from here to here, I will count. On average, that's about 65 to 70 rounds, depending on the yarn, the yarn weight. If it's a slightly heavier yarn, I'm going to knit fewer rounds. If it's a slightly finer yarn, I'm going to knit more rounds. So, again, the average for me is between 65 and 70 rounds. It could even be 60 rounds, but again, depends on the yarn. This distance in here is how many rounds. So, what I do if I'm knitting toe-up, which again, doesn't happen often, I will knit the little toe, work 65 to 70 rounds on my foot, and then start the heel. That is just, that works for me. So, if you wanted to give yourself a template, you could knit a sock top-down, make a note of the rounds, then you can just reverse it going in the other direction. It's just a little hint. It's something that helped me with knitting toe-up socks because I was having a hard time figuring that out before I knew about the ankle placement and starting the heel. Okay, so that should cover that. And again, I want to stress, sock knitting, oops, move my little space here, sock knitting is very, very personal. Everybody's feet, there are averages, but everybody's feet are a little bit different. So you have to play around with your rounds on your leg, with the rounds on your foot, to find the formula that works well for you. Okay, so that is top-down and toe-up and where to start your heel. As always, any questions, please leave them in the comment section down below.
Now, let's talk about customization for the Shadow Wrap Short Row heel. Okay, this is another huge question. Uh, so how do you customize the heel for better fit? Now, there's two basic areas pertaining, there's a couple, but the two basic areas pertaining to this topic are the depth of the heel, okay, the depth of the heel here, and yarn weight. How do you, how do you customize based on the yarn weight that you are using? Now, I have a pattern called "The Fearless DK Weight Socks." That pattern has a full explanation of how to customize the heel for yarn weight and for depth, and or if you want the heel deeper, if you want the heel a little bit more shallow. But I will go over it briefly here with you. There will be a link to that pattern in the description box down below. Ultimately, most short row heels, including the Shadow Wrap Short Row heel, are divided into thirds. You have your left side, your right side, and your center stitches. So, once you have figured out the total number of heel stitches that you were using, which equal half the total number of stitches for your sock. So, if your sock, all of the stitches for your sock, front and back, are 64 stitches, which is the average for myself, if that is 64 stitches, you are going to be working your heel over 32 stitches. Okay, you're going to divide that 32 stitches in half, and then you can start playing with the number. The more stitches you have on the sides, the more shallow your heel is going to be. The less stitches you have on the sides, I really hope I'm saying this right because I'm not looking at my pattern. Ultimately, the more stitches you have on the side, the deeper that heel is going to be. So, the fewer stitches in the center, more stitches on the side, it's going to be deeper. That means you're going to have a pointier, much pointier heel as opposed to more shallow for a wider heel. Okay. Now, that is again, not an absolute. It has to fit your foot. So, what do you, what, how many exactly do you need on the sides? I can't answer that question. It's about experimenting, playing with the heel to figure out what that perfect formula will be to fit your foot. Okay. But again, all of the details on how to customize for yarn weight as well as depth of the heel, okay, so by depth I mean from here to here, depth of this heel, is in the "Fearless DK Weight Socks" pattern.
All right, now the biggest question of all time is, "How to customize for a high instep?" So, let's look at that right now. This particular topic, I'm really excited about because I have done a lot of research and a lot of knitting to be able to properly, and I think efficiently, answer this question for you. So, we are looking at three versions right now of the Shadow Wrap heel. Okay, here's the heel just knit as is, standard issue. Let me see if I can zoom in. Actually, I'll bring this up a little bit. Here is the Shadow Wrap Short Row heel, just knit as written, as instructed in the pattern. Okay, no modifications to this at all. The problem for a high instep is that this distance from the heel to the top of the foot, or the instep of the foot, is too short. All right, so what happens is you start to get a lot of pulling in here and stretching, and you can't, some people can't even get the sock on over their instep because there's not enough room on the diagonal. Do I have a ruler? No. Um, here, I'll just use a pencil. So, there's not enough distance on the diagonal, okay, from the back of your heel to the top of the foot. This distance is too short. So, what you can do, here's modification number one, or customization number one, is you can include, you can modify it by including a mini heel flap. Okay, this is really, let me see, this is a little clearer on this side. Here is a mini heel flap. So, as you can see, there's a very tiny gusset right in here. Here is my Shadow Wrap Short Row heel, but you have this mini heel flap in here. Okay. This was the first person and only person, as of now, that I have seen with this modification. Is by Mina Phillip, who is "The Knitting Expat." This particular mini heel flap adjustment, as she calls it, is included in her vanilla sock pattern. Don't worry, I will link to everything for you down below. That is a paid-for pattern, so I cannot teach out of respect for Mina and her, and intellectual property, her pattern, her copyright, everything. I am not teaching it. I can explain, though, however, that the mini heel flap adjustment, okay, you're knitting a mini heel flap, then including the mini gusset here, gives you much more room on the diagonal, again, from the back of the heel, okay, as you can see the heel is deeper, so it gives you more room from the back of the heel to the top of the foot or top of the instep. Okay, there is a lot more stretch in here. You can even see it on the, um, on the blocker. Okay, there's a lot more room in here. All right. Now, that pattern from Mina is, uh, again, it's a paid-for pattern. It is available on Ravelry. I'm not sure if she has it on Payhip or any other platform, but again, I will link to all of the platforms in the description box down below. Okay, um, her pattern is also for a top-down sock. I do not believe that their instructions, if I'm mistaken, I will put it here on the screen for you, but I do believe that it is only for top-down socks. All right, so I would have to reach out to Mina or maybe at some point she will modify her instructions or add to her instructions for toe-up. All right, but this, obviously, top-down, toe-up, this one is top-down.
Here is the one, this is the new to me version, um, of adding depth that has just completely blown me away. This is the Deep Shadow Heel by Isolda Teague. I will put that on the screen here for you. This is also part of a paid-for pattern. Okay, uh, let me just double-check here for a moment. Okay, just had to pause because I wanted to double-check. This particular heel is part of a pattern called "Shadow Her Shadow Print Socks" pattern. Okay, I know that Isolda does a collection of patterns. Um, I'm not sure if this is still part of the collection or if it's now a freestanding pattern. I will also let you know that in the description, um, box down below. But what Isolda has done here, okay, this is the depth of the gusset from here to here. I hope you can see that in this yarn. Maybe if I flip it. Yeah, let's hold it this way. Now, I think this way is better. So, here you can see this is the depth of the gusset between my fingers. So, what she has brilliantly done in here, she has created, there are no triple stitches when she knits this heel. There are twin stitches, but then she does increases within the twin stitches that create extra stitches in the short rows, then those are decreased out in a full gusset. The amount of room between, on the diagonal here, let's go down a little bit. The amount of room from the back of the heel to the top of the instep is incredible. It's absolutely incredible. I, this may or may not become my new go-to. I love the fit, I love the way it looks, there is tons of room. I do, I will confess, I do have pulling from time to time across my instep. And I, I don't have a high instep. If, if you want to say my feet are average, whatever that means. Um, I have a 7 and a half foot, normal, normal instep based on, I don't know, doctors and everybody else. There's, I, it's not high in any way at all. So, but that said, depending on the yarn that I'm using and the weight of the yarn, I will from time to time get that pulling across my instep, right in here. Does it bother me? No. I will just throw my socks on and go. But again, it is definitely a problem if you have a high instep. This will solve that problem 100%. And Isolda does have a tutorial on how to knit this. So, again, a paid-for pattern, so I will not be teaching it here, but she has a full, very easy to understand, very clear video tutorial on YouTube. I will link to that down below. It's, I didn't, I have the pattern, but I didn't even read the pattern instructions. I just went by her instructions in the video tutorial, and I did this myself. Some people have requested in the comments that she do a vanilla version of this that doesn't have, because it's a colorwork pattern that it's a part of. I don't know if she's done that yet, but again, the instructions are very easy to understand, very, very clear. It's, it blew me away. It absolutely blew me away. So, this is my version of her, of her Deep Shadow Heel, and I am just, oh my gosh, absolutely amazed. Now, again, I do believe this pattern is also top-down. So, I don't know yet if there is anything in the works for a toe-up. I have absolutely no idea. I may reach out to her just to ask, um, but right now, both of these modifications for a high instep are top-down only. Okay, but these are, these two are your main options for providing a little bit more room for the high instep. I highly recommend both of them. You may not need as much as this because this is very, very roomy. You may not even need this much modification for the instep. You may just need this. How do I know which one you need? I don't. I have less than no idea. Again, this is where experimenting and knitting and taking notes comes into play for you to figure out the best fit for yourself. Okay. But here we have standard issue Shadow Wrap heel, Shadow Wrap heel with a mini heel flap adjustment, and here is the Deep Shadow Heel by Isolda Teague. This is by Mina Phillip. Absolutely amazing. This is why I love sock knitting because there's just so many options and so many things that you can do. Okay, so here we go. Now we are on to the next topic.
So, here's another option for you. A couple of years ago on Instagram, just for fun and because I can, I wanted to see what the Shadow Wrap Short Row heel would look like as an afterthought heel. Why would you want to do that? Just because you can. Why not? It's experimenting and it's another kind of heel. So, can the Shadow Wrap Short Row heel be used as an afterthought heel? Absolutely. But you have to keep a couple of things in mind. Okay, you will have 32 stitches that need to be grafted. Let me take this off. Okay, so when you are working your heel, and this can also be done top-down as well as toe-up. So, I worked my cuff, let's go this way. I worked my cuff, I did a very short leg, then I started, and I cut in my afterthought heel. Okay, so I split the stitches, I cut, I unwove, I pick stitches up, and I started working the Shadow Wrap Short Row heel. Now, you will have 32 stitches, or however many stitches are in your number of heel stitches, you will have that many stitches to graft together. All right, so think, keep, sorry, keep that in mind. Sorry, I was flipping back and forth off camera. Keep that in mind if you are working this heel. So, you will have, if you, when you divide, you will have this set of stitches and this set of stitches on this side. So, you're going to work your Shadow Wrap Short Row heel back and forth, first half, then you're going to work the second half. You will have all of these live stitches on this side that you will then have to graft together. So, the foot stitches, you will have to graft to the heel stitches. Can it be done? Absolutely. I'm thinking about possibly making this. I'm going to wait to hear what the opinion is in the comments. If there is interest, I may do a full tutorial on how to do that. But I just wanted to at least plant the seed and explain that it can be done. Here. Now, what I also did, so keep that in mind, all of that grafting, is it hard? No. You just have to take your time. And if you don't like Kitchener stitch or grafting, then this is not the heel for you. One thing I did learn, I'm going to put this back on the blocker, um, and the fun part about knitting socks is that you have two that you have to knit because we are blessed with two feet, but you also can experiment. So, what you've done on the first sock, you're like, "Hmm, that didn't really work. Let me try something a little different on the second." Which is exactly what I did with this pair. So, this was the first one that I knit, and I don't know if you can see, but there is a pucker right here. Okay, there's a little bump right there. You, it's on both sides. All right. What I did with this heel, and there's even not, I wouldn't call that holes, but a little bit more pulling in that spot, oops, in that space. What I did here is I wove the stitches in right to the edge. Okay, so the first stitch and the 32nd stitch, I went right to the edge and grafted all the way from point to point. And as you can see, it definitely gave that little bump. Can you feel it in your sock when you're wearing your sock? Not at all. Can anyone see that? Probably not, because if someone's that close to your foot, then you've got a whole other set of problems. So, it's not obvious, but for me, it just wasn't clean, and I didn't like it. So, what I did here, this time, I would, I stay, I stopped two stitches before the end. Okay, so I worked up to the 30th stitch and started, or stopped and started on the third stitch. So, one and two, I left plain, and then 31 and 32, I left plain because I'm working a 64. The reason I'm using those numbers is because I use 64 stitches for these, for this pair of socks. Okay, that would obviously change depending on the number of stitches in your heel. Okay, but again, I did not go all the way to the edge, and you don't have, uh, yeah, here you don't have that little blip, okay, or as much pulling at the joint. Now, an afterthought heel does have a tiny bit of pulling just by nature, um, but again, I thought this was much, much cleaner. Okay, so here it is as an afterthought, the Shadow Wrap Short Row heel as an afterthought heel. There you go. And again, if there is interest in this, um, I am open to doing a separate tutorial that goes into much more detail, um, demonstration, and explanation.
Okay, continuing with what else can you do with the Shadow Wrap Short Row? Here it is as a toe. Let's zoom in on that. Let me see if I can zoom in here a bit. Oh, look at that. Okay, uh, I've got a slightly different setup here for my camera, and it's really, really working, and I'm really excited. So, can you use the Shadow Wrap Short Row? Can you use Shadow Wrap Short Rows for a toe? And the answer is yes, you absolutely can. Now, again, because they're two socks, I decided to try this two different ways. So, for the first one, I was working, and I started, I'm going to pop this off so it's easier to see. I started the toe on the top of the foot. Let's zoom back out here for a second. There we go. I started, worked my cuff, worked very short leg, put in my Shadow Wrap Short Row heel, then I kept coming down, and I decided here that I was going to start working. I left half my stitches on one needle, and here I started working the Shadow Wrap Short Rows, same way that you would for the heel. I started working them for the toe. Okay, same way. And again, the same thing happened. I, I went to the edge with one, right to the edge, so stitch 32 and stitch one, because I'm using 32 stitches for the toe, and I did one stitch in, two stitches in on this one, right to the edge on this one. Okay, same thing that I did with the heel to avoid that little bump. All right. Now, work back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. You work the first half, then you're going to work your second half, and then same thing, you have to graft all of those stitches together. All right. So, in this case, I started on the top, came up and over the toes, and I grafted onto the bottom of the sock. All right. You can see, and I purposely never blocked these so that I could still see that little line of demarcation where the grafting took place. And let me grab a needle. I grafted my stitches right about here. Okay, can you all see that? Okay, and if I had blocked these, that would be perfectly smooth. The same way, I mean, this is what it looks like if you are grafting a toe. Still has that slightly unevenness about it. Once you block your socks or wash your socks, that will all come out in the wash, so to speak. Okay, so that is what I did here. So, yes, it can be done. Does it give you, so let's look from here to here, because you can see the line of demarcation a little bit better. Does it give you a very deep toe? Eh, I'd say it's about average. Let's look at the toe on another sock for a moment. May even be a little bit deeper. So, here's another toe. Let's put them side by side. This is actually slightly deeper, but it's pointier. Okay, this particular toe is a little bit more rounded. I prefer a rounded toe as opposed to this, which looks more like a wedge toe. What is the difference? A rounded toe means that you work your decreases every other round. So, a decrease round, a plain round, till you get to about a third of the stitches remaining, and then you're going to decrease every round, and that gives you the rapid decrease rounds off the top. Okay. With a wedge toe, let's say this was a standard wedge toe where I was decreasing every other round, decrease, so you would do a decrease round, a plain round, a decrease round, a plain round, all the way down to your final number of stitches. This, the Shadow Wrap Short Row toe, more closely resembles the wedge toe. Okay, so your, it's not, it doesn't round off as well or as evenly in the toe. That basically boils down to aesthetics. Okay, that's just appearance only. Some people like a little bit more room, they don't like room, they want more rounded. The wedge, the pointiness doesn't matter. It really is personal preference. You may want to scrap all of this altogether and work an anatomical toe, okay, where one side, it more perfectly matches. So, let's say this is our, our big toes on this side, you would have a straight edge that then rounds off to look more like the natural curve in your foot. All right. But can this be done? Let's get back to the point. Can you use Shadow Wrap Short Rows and the technique for a toe? Yes, you can. Now, what I did on this one, I worked instead of starting on this side, this is the top of the foot. Let's go down a little bit. Instead of working on the top of the foot and then grafting on the bottom, I did it the other way. So, here, because I had two socks to play with here, I started working the toe on the sole, or the bottom of the sock, came up and over the, the top of the toes, and then I grafted, which you can clearly see here, I grafted on the top of the foot. If you decide to do this, I highly recommend grafting to the top because there's less wear and tear on the top than there would be on the bottom. Okay, but again, you're grafting X number of stitches across the top, which is way more than the usual that you would have if you were just grafting a normal toe, which could be anywhere from 10 to 12 stitches. Here you're working anywhere from 32 to 28 stitches or more, depending on the number of stitches for your toe. Okay, but can it be done? Absolutely. So, let's just put these back on the blockers for just a moment, just so you can see. I don't even know if this is really important, but just to wrap up, can, can it be used as a toe? Yes, it can.
Just to answer a couple of other questions, uh, can you work the Shadow Wrap Short Row heel in a contrasting color? As you can see, many of my samples are in contrasting colors. So, the answer is absolutely yes. I have a full tutorial on how to do that, which I will link in the description box down below. Uh, when I put out the call in my last podcast episode for questions that I could answer in this particular lesson, some people wanted everything all in one video. That's a great idea, but it's very time-consuming, and it's already been done. So, what I'm doing here, this will be your main resource, your main hub, and there will be links to everything that you need. So, again, you, yes, you can do these in contrasting color, you can also do them in a plain color. I will link to those tutorials down below. Can the Shadow Wrap Short Row heel be knit in a con, can be knit in a plain or a contrasting color, two at a time? Yes, it can. What you're doing there is you will technically work one heel to the last triple stitch, you stop, you go to the next, you work that heel to the last triple stitch, then when you start working back in the round, you will resolve the third, the final triple stitch, and you happily keep going on your socks two at a time. Again, there's a full tutorial that I've already done for you. I will link that in the description box down below.
So, now let's just stay here for, for one moment. Someone was asking, which I think is a fair question, about the integrity of the Shadow Wrap Short Row heel versus a heel flap and gusset. Now, what does that mean? How well does the heel hold up? Basically, will a Shadow Wrap Short Row heel wear out faster than a heel flap and gusset? Yes and no, and I'll talk about why. This particular, this heel flap, this is a brown one, but you can still see it. This Shadow Wrap Short Row heel is just knit in plain stockinette. Okay, so I'm knitting a row, purling a row, in order to create the heel. You know what, let me put on a brighter heel so you could see it. That's a little too dark. Hold on. So, let's use this instead. Okay, hold on, just switching over to another sock. Okay, here we go, much better. All right, it's just knit plain. So, you've got your, your knit row and your purl rows. It's just plain. There's no texture in this heel. So, here's your stress point. When you put your sock on, it's this portion of the sock that is going to be rubbing across the back of your shoe, and this portion of your heel that you're, for me, I'm a heavy walker. My mom says I walk heavy, which means I hit my heel really hard when I step. So, there's going to be much more wear and tear on this portion of your, of your heel. Could that happen in any pair of socks that you're wearing? Yes, absolutely. Is it a, is that possibility increased because there is no texture in here? It's just plain stockinette? Yes. So, now let's look at this one. Here are, these are slip stitches. Here's a standard heel flap and gusset. They're slip stitches in this heel flap. So, again, here's that part that's rubbing across the back of your heel. So, with these slip stitches, you have a, a thicker, you've created a slightly thicker layer of fabric. Let's look at the inside for a moment. Actually, got the other sock here. If you look at the inside, and please don't mind that I haven't woven in all of my ends, just ignore that. The nature of slip stitches, okay, is you are creating an extra, you've got extra strands of yarn. So, you almost have like a double layer. All right, that extra yarn in here, that fortifies this heel flap just a little bit more.
One thing I did want to share in this class was how I knit my, how I knit in a contrasting color. That really does seem to eliminate the blip a little bit better. Okay, um, and this is if I'm not breaking the main color. So, I really wanted to show you how I do that, and I just, I happened to keep a sock, I had a sock in that position ready to go. But as you can see, there's really no blip here. So, I just want to show you how I do that really quickly. So, let's begin. Okay, I have left my working yarn. I purposely didn't, uh, weave in the tail in this case because I want to know that I'm at the beginning of the round. So, when my tail and working yarn are on the same side, I know that I'm at the beginning of the round, and it's right where I want to place my heel. Okay, some people like to do it on the other side, it really does not matter. So, I'm going to leave my main color, the striping color, intact, and I'm going to start, start working my contrasting heel in, I'm going to start working the Shadow Wrap heel in the contrasting color. Okay, so let's get started. That's just going to hang out there. Okay, so let's, let's start, and again, I know this color is a little bit dark. I'm going to leave a decent-sized tail because I'm going to weave this in later. Okay, so, um, everything is just going to hang out down there for now, and I'm going to knit across. Okay, and I'll stay with you all for the first row here. Here we go, and I'm going to work my stitches. As you know, if you've watched my tutorials, you know I like to do things in real time because I do think it's helpful to see more of the process. Takes a little bit longer and makes the video longer, but I do think it's helpful. So, here I am at my last two stitches, and I'm going to work my twin stitch. All, oops, there we go. Going to work my twin stitch and put that onto my needle. So, I've worked my first twin. I'm going to turn around and now I'm going to purl back. So, I'm going to, because we don't need this class doesn't particularly need a tutorial on the Shadow Wrap Short Heel itself, I'm just going to continue working the heel as I normally would, just before I get to the end, then I'll show you what I do on this side. Okay, everybody, so I have now worked all of the twin and triple stitches down to one on each side. But I do have to interrupt myself for a moment and just say, for full transparency here, uh, in editing this video, I was hesitant to include this segment in the tutorial because I felt that the yarn was too dark to really see the color change or the avoidance of that blip that I'm trying to demonstrate here. Um, but I'm going to include it anyway because you will still see how I join the, go from the contrasting color to picking up this working yarn here on the side and how I weave in the ends. So, I am going to include it just to demonstrate that, but I will do a separate video to fully and properly show that avoidance of the blip in another video. Okay, let's continue. So, right now, uh, I have my tail from the working yarn. This is going to be woven in once I pick up the main color again. But I'm now going to work across. I just finished the purl, the triple stitch on the purl side, so I'm going to knit across now and resolve the triple stitch on the other side. So, let's do that together. Oops, I'm not really holding that properly. Okay, there we go, that's better. So, let's just work across here in real time. Okay, and I do have in my other tutorials that I mentioned knitting the contrasting heel two at a time, um, there is, and knitting a contrasting heel in general, I do cover weaving in the ends in those videos as well. So, there are other places to see it if you want to see it quicker, uh, than waiting for me to redo this portion of the video. So, here is my last triple stitch. I'm going to knit that with my contrasting color, and as you can see, I am now finished on this side. Okay, so what I'm going to do is break this contrasting yarn. Okay, move that out of my way, and I'm going to weave this in when I come back around. So, what I'm now going to do is turn this around, and I'm actually going to unknit or tink, as some of us call it, about five or six stitches so that I can weave in this end. All right, and this came to me one day to do this rather than weaving it in with a needle at the end, you can weave it in as you go. So, I'm going to just unknit these stitches. Here we go. How many is that? That's five. Let's do six. All right, so I've unknit six stitches on the instep, on the top of the foot. I'm going to take the tail and put it between the needles. I'm now going to knit in, knit in that tail by putting it over and then knitting, and then put the yarn over and knit again. And again, I do have a tutorial on how to do this, which I will link for you below, but I still wanted to give you a little demo here. Here we go, and now I'm knitting that last one, and I have this really big loop here. Okay, so I'm going to pull this needle out, and I'm going to give the tail, which is sticking out on the front of the sock, I'm going to give that a little tug, and that closes up the gap. Okay, you can tug it a little bit more if you like, and that is now woven in. So, now I am ready to start working, to continue, rather, I'm ready to continue with the main color. So, I'm going to push my other needle in place. Okay, here we go. Here is the other remaining triple stitch. So, I'm going to knit that. Going to slide this underneath to avoid my ladder. Give another tug, and just keep knitting across. And as you can see, I have now rejoined. I've continued with the striping pattern. There is no gap, and you'll see it once I get around to the other side. I do have this end to weave in, which I will show you. We have two more ends. Actually, no, just one more end to weave in. So, let's knit across. Okay, almost there. Now, this is where I ended here, so I have to weave this in on this side, on the instep side. I'm going to pause for just one moment. Okay, and now we're just, I didn't move, I didn't advance past that point, so we're just going to continue together. There we go. Knit into that last stitch. Now, that last stitch is totally wonky because here is the end. Okay, can you all see that? So, I'm done with this needle, and I don't think I've said this yet in any of, uh, in any portion of this video, but all of the, I'm using two circular needles here, that's my go-to method. Everything that's been done here can be done on using any sock knitting method, whether it's two circulars, magic loop, double-pointed needles, or a 9-inch needle. It doesn't matter how you are knitting your socks. This is just teaching you techniques, um, for the heel. So, now this little end, let's resolve, let's get rid of this. This is just poking through. So, if I reach in and just give this a little pull, I can tuck that inside. That is all taken care of, and I just have this end to weave in. So, I'm going to push my front needle in place, and they're right next to each other here. Okay, I'm going to do the same thing with weaving in as I knit. So, I'm going to drape that over the needle, and then I'm going to catch it. Then I'm going to drape the contrasting color over, knit, and then I catch it and lock it in place on the next stitch. And again, you're going to do this for about five or six stitches going across. And, and I'm done here. There we go. The end is now woven in. I'm going to drop that inside, and I can give it a little tug just to tighten up the corner. There are no gaps, no holes. I am continuing now with my main color. All of the woven-in ends are tucked in, and I can keep going. So, I'm just going to knit to the other side. I have not broken up my striping pattern. I'm going to work across here. Okay, almost finished here. I'm back to the other side, and there you go. Everything is woven in. We're done. You can see I'm pulling this apart, but that gap is not really a gap. So, everything is now woven in. There are no holes at my intersections. But again, as I said, I wanted to continue with the demonstration, but you're really not getting a true sense of the avoidance of that blip. But as you can see, there really isn't, if you can see, there really isn't a blip on that side, nor is there one on this side. Okay, so there you have it, everyone. And then I would just happily continue knitting on my sock. Uh, here's the first sock. This one's all done, and I will just, whoops, I just moved my little table here, and I will continue. And that is how you do it.
Another question that I received was, "Could I possibly discuss the integrity of the Shadow Wrap Short Row heel versus a heel flap and gusset?" Now, what does that mean? How well does the heel hold up? Basically, will a Shadow Wrap Short Row heel wear out faster than a heel flap and gusset? Yes and no, and I'll talk about why. This particular, this heel flap, this is a brown one, but you can still see it. This Shadow Wrap Short Row heel is just knit in plain stockinette. Okay, so I'm knitting a row, purling a row. In order to create the heel, you know what, let me put on a brighter heel so you could see it. That's a little too dark. Hold on. So, let's use this instead. Okay, hold on, just switching over to another sock. Okay, here we go, much better. All right, it's just knit plain. So, you've got your, your knit row and your purl rows. It's just plain. There's no texture in this heel. So, here's your stress point. When you put your sock on, it's this portion of the sock that is going to be rubbing across the back of your shoe, and this portion of your heel that you're, for me, I'm a heavy walker. My mom says I walk heavy, which means I hit my heel really hard when I step. So, there's going to be much more wear and tear on this portion of your, of your heel. Could that happen in any pair of socks that you're wearing? Yes, absolutely. Is it a, is that possibility increased because there is no texture in here? It's just plain stockinette? Yes. So, now let's look at this one. Here are, these are slip stitches. Here's a standard heel flap and gusset. They're slip stitches in this heel flap. So, again, here's that part that's rubbing across the back of your heel. So, with these slip stitches, you have a, a thicker, you've created a slightly thicker layer of fabric. Let's look at the inside for a moment. Actually, got the other sock here. If you look at the inside, and please don't mind that I haven't woven in all of my ends, just ignore that. The nature of slip stitches, okay, is you are creating an extra, you've got extra strands of yarn. So, you almost have like a double layer. All right, that extra yarn in here, that fortifies this heel flap just a little bit more.
So you're going to have to really, really wear your socks a little longer before you start to see that wear and tear. However, let's put that to the side. However, the bottom portion, this portion, okay, where as my mom says, I'm stepping hard, this portion here is the same. Let's bring them up. They're absolutely the same. So you're still going to, there's still the potential to have that wear and tear in the same spot. It's less likely on the heel flap, but the probability is about the same on the bottom. Okay.
Are there patterns out there where you can do slip stitches across the whole bottom of your sock? Yes, they are. Yes, they are. They do exist. Okay. The average person, I don't see those patterns very often, but they are definitely out there. Now, can you add slip stitches to a short row heel? Can you add that to the shadow wrap short row heel? Yes, you can. So if you are working your heel and you knit one, slip one, knit one, slip one, knit one, slip one, one, they're going to get slightly longer as you work toward the center and then shorter as you work the other side. So can you include slip stitches to add a little bit more fortification to the shadow wrap short row heel? Absolutely. And still work your twin stitches and triple stitches the same way. Okay.
So that is one way to increase the fortification. That's a big word, but you know what I mean, increase the fortification then within the heel. Okay. But again, some people don't get wear and tear on their, on their heels at all. They may get it on the ball of their foot. They may get it down at this portion. Okay. They may get it at the toe. It just depends on how you wear your socks, how often you wear your socks, how you step, what your stride is, etc. But that is a very brief discussion then on how to increase. And again, it doesn't have to always be slip stitches. You can do, um, you can also do garter stitch. And I have a pattern, the Elac Socks pattern, where I've done a garter stitch on the, on the heel flap as well as the heel turn. So that can also, the more texture, there's more texture in a garter stitch, the more texture you can include in this vulnerable area, in this L-shaped vulnerable area of your sock. Okay. The longer your socks will last. All right.
Another thing you can do is just knit lots and lots and lots of pairs of socks. So you don't have to wear the same pair over and over. That will also help. So there you go with, um, stress and wear and tear and integrity of your socks. So let's talk about fixing mistakes. Finally, I've had this question for many, many years, and it's taken me a little while to figure this out. Maybe there are others out there that have already figured it out. Yay for them. But it took me a little while to really knit this heel over and over and over to understand how to fix the mistakes. Now, the two biggest mistakes you're going to have are dropped twin or triple stitches and the dreaded blip. There it is, the dreaded blip that you get when you're working this heel in a contrasting color. I'm going to show you how to fix that blip, and then we're going to talk about picking up dropped stitches. So let's start here.
What is happening here and why does it happen? I am always a fan of understanding the why of something so that you will understand how it works so you know how to fix it. Sorry, I had to cut there for a second. So what you're doing here, now when you're creating your stitches, okay, you are ultimately starting, you're putting your first twin stitch into the first stitch of your main color on one side, and you're doing the same thing on the other side. Okay. What you're doing here is you're stretching out that first stitch. It's overstretched. I have worked a twin stitch in here as well as a triple stitch in there. Okay. When I'm working that, the stitch gets stretched out and stays stretched out for a little while while I'm working the heel. So for some people, I don't know if you've noticed, you tend to see the blip a little more on one side than on the other. This side gets resolved a little bit faster when you're working top down. The opposite might happen if you're working toe up. All right. I hope that makes sense. So what you basically have to do is get rid of this extra bit of fabric that's been put into place here because the yarn has been stretched. All right. So if you can remove that extra bit of fabric or extra bit of yarn and redistribute it into the stitches on either side, to one, it could be either side, or just to one side. I tend to do it to one side. You will ultimately remove that blip. So let's see how to do that. Okay. And again, my ends are showing. Let's tuck that back in there. Tuck, tuck, tuck, tuck. Okay.
So here we are. Here is the stitch. This is the left leg of the stitch. The right leg of the stitch is almost buried. It's right here. So if you give this a good pull, okay, and then pull the stitch next to it, which is also buried, all right, you've now pulled up so you can now see both legs. So where is the stitch that's next to it? It's this stitch right here. So I'm going to give that a pull. So I'm going to pull again on this one. Okay. And then I'm going to pull the stitch next to it. Now, as usual, I'm looking at this through, through my camera, which, okay, now I found it. There we go. Okay. So you have to dig a little bit, but if I give that another pull, as you can see, the blip is now decreasing, but I also have this very elongated side of the stitch. So you have to keep moving to the side. All right. And you redistribute. Okay. And you may have to go back in and pull again. Oops, there we go. Give another little pull and redistribute. And when you tug, ultimately, that little blip will go away. And then I'm just going to stretch, stretch, stretch, stretch. You do have, you still have the slightly elongated stitch, but now once this has been blocked or wet, that will ultimately go away. But that is what's happening. The stitch is slightly elongated. Okay.
Now, why doesn't it happen on this side? Because the length of time that you've got the twin and triple stitches on here, you're resolving that triple stitch on this side a lot quicker than on this side. This is where the first stitch was made, and that's why it's elongated. Okay. So we're just again, just give it a little pull. All right. Tug, and ultimately the blip will go away. Okay.
So now let's talk about fixing twin and dropped twin and triple stitches. Okay. First thing to remember, and I even have this underlined in my notes, the first thing to remember is to proceed with caution. You want to do this very carefully. Now, I am using some worsted weight yarn. Okay. I wonder if you can see against. Maybe I should use slightly. Let's pause for a second. I always leave my blips and mistakes in because I, I want people to realize that I'm human and I like to change things if necessary. So as you may have noticed, I have now added a very wrinkled piece of fabric to the background. I didn't want to take the time to now stop and iron it and blah, blah, blah. Okay, cuz this is, this is okay that it's a little wrinkled, but I realized because I'm doing this on a slightly heavier yarn, I thought it would be easier to see, but then realized the yarn almost completely matched the background, so it was things were getting blurry and it was going to be harder to see. So hence the wrinkled fabric. But okay, it definitely helps with being able to see. So here I just have a little sample that I'm working on in a worsted weight yarn. You will need one of these. You will need a crochet hook. This is called a handy tool. Let me put my hand behind it. This is called a handy tool, and it is by Susan Bates. It has a little cable needle on one end, there is the center piece to hold, and then the crochet hook on the other end. It's very small, but can be used with just about any weight yarn, and I always keep it in my project, in my little notions pouch here. So that is what I'm going to grab, which is what most of us would have on hand. So I highly recommend getting these. I keep these in every project bag that I use. I will link to them down below. I buy them on Amazon, and there you go. Um, so here we go.
Here is our triple stitch. We're going to start with a tri, with a triple. What you're doing when knitting shadow wrap short rows is you are creating. I'm going to actually undo this so that you can see it. So if I dropped, where is it? There we go. If I drop this stitch and pull it out, okay, I did that on purpose so that you could see what I'm doing. When you're creating a triple or twin stitch, you are lifting the right leg of the stitch below. Some people refer to it as the mother stitch. You're lifting that, putting it on the needle, then you're going to knit into it. Okay. Then you're going to slide that back on. All right. Now, when you're ready, you would then resolve that by knitting all of those stitches together. But what happens if that falls off the needle? All right, you've just finished it and you're like, oh my gosh, what do I do now? So let's purposely drop it off. Okay, and pull that out. Now, if it's this particular stitch, one you just created, you can go back in and do it again. But what happens if it's one of these? Now, if I drop that one, I know I can hear the collective, collective gasping. What do I do with that? That's just, oh my gosh, what do I do? What do I do now? Okay.
What you have to do is catch this. All right, this was created on the previous row, so this is just hanging out there. All right, you have to go back into this mother stitch, into this main stitch, and pull that back through. So I'm going to insert my crochet hook. I'm in the stitch. I'm going to catch that drop stitch. I'm just putting a little tension on it so it will come through. I'm going to pull that through and then put it back on the needle. And that's basically it. That's it. It seems a little tricky. Now, granted, I'm doing this in slightly larger yarn, okay, so that you can really see what I'm doing. Let's drop both now. So this stitch, sorry, this stitch, let's move this out of the way because I think it's trying to focus on the background. Okay. This stitch is the one. This is the twin that I created. This stitch to the left was the first, was the original stitch. Okay. So what happens if both fall off? Now what do you do? All right, you can, if they just fall to this point, you can very easily catch both, slide them back on onto your needle. But what happens if they fall all the way off? Okay, and come up through. So let's pull them out altogether. Now what do you do there? This is the twin that you created. This is the strand that's the original stitch that was in there. So I'm going to insert my crochet hook, pull this stitch through. Okay. Put that on the needle. Oops, I didn't catch all the strands. Hang on. If you've watched my tutorials for a while, you know that I do tend to struggle a little bit when I'm looking through the camera lens. Okay. I think, do I have them all? There we go. All right, I've got them all. Okay. You're going to put this back on the needle. Okay. So there's my original stitch, but I still have this twin hanging out. So I'm going to go in, as I just did before, you're going to catch the leg of that stitch, come through, put a little tension on it, just so I can pull it through, and there it is. And I'm going to put that back on the needle. Okay. There we go. I hope that was clear.
Let's do that one more time. Okay. So everybody, I'm going to, I'm going to resolve that stitch and go to the next. Hang on, cuz I think it would be, that's now a little overstretched. So let's knit right here. So here's my next stitch, another twin. And this again, the same thing applies if you're using triples or twins. Okay. You will have your main original stitch, and then you're going to have, in this case, it's just one strand or two strands if you have a twin or a triple. All right. So I'm going to drop this one. Let's do one at a time, and I'm going to pull that through. So there is the stitch that I want to get back on the needle. So I, in another way, with this little hook, I can go this way if it's a little easier. I'm going to catch that stitch and pull it through. Oops. And then slide it back on. Okay.
If I drop both, let's drop both. So here is, this is the twin. That's the strand from the original. So I'm going to go in with my hook. I'm going to pull the original strand back through and put that on my needle. Then I'm going to catch this strand and put that on my needle. So put my needle in, come through, grab that, and then put that back on the needle. Whoops. Oh, I put it on the wrong way. And there we go. That is fixing a dropped stitch. Okay. And then you can resolve that. Okay. Go on, knit your next one. Keeps trying to focus on the background, guys. There you go. And then you would create, open that up, and then you would create your next stitch, and you can keep going. Okay. Okay. That is how you fix a dropped twin or triple stitch.
Wow, that was a lot of information. Oh my goodness. Uh, are you guys as overwhelmed and tired as I am? Uh, I hope not. I hope that you are motivated and excited and curious. And sock knitting, as I say all the time, is not about comparison. It is about experimenting. Did this video answer every single question that you could possibly have? Probably not. Did I answer how it will fit your feet specifically? Maybe I did, maybe I didn't. This is about experimenting. I've given you options to customize. Can I say for sure that those customizations will work specifically for your feet? One may, one may not. It is about experimenting, knitting, ripping out, knitting again. And no time knitting is ever wasted. Even if you have to take a minute to rip something out, it's never wasted time. You still get to enjoy the pleasure of yarn and needles in your hands. So I think reframing your perspective or reframing your thoughts about ripping and experimenting and re-knitting will definitely help you in the long run. I don't think there is any sock teacher or design or pattern designer or anything that can give you an absolute answer to any question. Definitely experiment. So that said, I hope you will take the information in this class today and use it to the best of your ability. Customize your socks. Happy knitting, everybody. And I hope you enjoyed today. Again, any questions, please leave them in the description box down below, and I will be happy to help and to answer. Thanks so much for watching today. Happy sock knitting, everyone.