More than one way to turn a heel

This post is a continuation of my journey into the world of sock knitting on the Passap DM-80.

I've been doing my research. There are several ways to knit a heel of a sock. The most popular, the one that's in the Passap manual, is with short rows. Just as in hand knitting, machine knitted short rows are usually knitted with a "wrap" in order to avoid a hole or space developing at the end of each knitted short row.

I've knitted many a short row in my life. Some can be seen here and here. I wondered why the Passap patterns that included wrapping only used manual wrapping and never the automatic wrapping technique. I decided to knit my first heel, and instead of moving the pushers in or out of working position on the far side of the lock (carriage) and manually wrapping the yarn around the adjacent non-knitting needle, I would move my pushers on the lock side to do short row decreases and increases. This would produce an automatic wrap... or so I thought.

The result:

Yup, lacy. So where's my wrap?

I got out my always handy A Machine Knitter's Guide to Creating Fabrics by Susanna Lewis. There it was on p. 154: "Automatic wrap cannot be knitted on Passap." Oh. I forgot that I'd been using a Brother 260 the last time I worked short rows. I could've sworn I saw automatic wraps forming on that heel as I knitted!? (I will investigate this further another day.)

Then I remembered all the buzz about an "Unholy Heel" by Makoshark (Martina Kosloff) on Ravelry a while back. I found the link to her fabulously photographed and clear instructions and gave it a try. The result:

No more lacy heel!

I did modify Makoshark's directions. On the short row increases, after following her directions in Figure 4,  it was easier for me to fill the empty needle by picking up the adjacent loop, one stitch down (a/k/a purl bump), just as in a regular full fashioned increase. (I admit I never even attempted to twist the running thread between stitches as directed in the pattern.) To fill the final empty needle, I picked up the loop, one stitch down, from the needle directly opposite on the back bed.

And it was just soooo easy!!

I like the Unholy Heel Mod so much that I may even use it as an Unholy Toe if I decide to knit my first socks toe up.

And there are more ways to turn a heel on a flat bed machine:

• Passap Sock by dresda (Stephanie Coulshaw) - Another beautifully photographed pictorial, this sock has a heel flap.
• Machine Knit Hand Knit Sock with Gusset by Knittsings - The name says it all. There's only a picture of the finished sock, but the instructions are probably very good for those with experience hand knitting similar socks.
• Sock Options for Machine Knitters by Catherine Goodwin - A new-to-me pattern booklet that's offered for sale online, I would love to hear from anyone who has read this.

I haven't tried any of these yet. I will share with you if I do.

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Last edit 30Jan2012 to reorient photos