Lost in sock knitting

As you see I am stuck in sock knitting. Totally. Working with the magic loop knitting a sock goes so fast and working with different kinds of yarn and sometimes lace is so nice.

I am still struggling with the heels though (I accidentally wrote hells instead of heels. There's a Freudian slip for you!). The hourglass heel with its slips and wraps did not give the nice flat heel I wanted, and I really do not want to get into the different kinds of heels with rectangular flaps. I don't think they look nice.

So when I knit some rough socks in Drops Andes (I cast on 28) and the wrap and slip and knit together short row heel left the socks with big holes – again! – I went googling and found the Jo-Jo Heel which gives a better look.

But even with this technique a heel with a yarn this thick is not perfectly tight. I mean, the whole sock is not that very smooth and tight, so the heel can't be better than the rest of the sock. I am fairly satisfied with the heel though.

Here's another attempt, with a Järbo Raggi yarn.

So what you basically do is turn at the end of each short row and then you slip the last stitch you made and pull the yarn over it so that you get a double stitch on the right pin. You go on like that, but when you are supposed to turn the heel you make two rounds all around the sock before you actually turn. 

After that you will have to create these double stitches again while expanding the heel.  I understand if you don't understand. This is not meant as an instruction (maybe I will get to that later), but more as a taste of where the difference lies.

This technique has many names, Jo-Jo or Yo-Yo heel (silly name, since there are no YOs, no Yarn Overs) or Double stitch short row, but there is also a variant called Boomerang heel that I will try with my next pair of socks.

/Maia