Recently I heard several people say that turning the heel of a sock is hard. After knitting hundreds of pairs of socks, I could promise to turn a heel with eyes closed! Seeing that many knitters find the heel difficult made me decide that it was time to create a tutorial showing only the heel part of a sock.
There are countless ways to knit a sock heel. I’m only showing one basic one. You first knit a straight heel flap. I learned it first from my mother before I was 10 years old, and then we also knitted socks at school. This heel can be done with or without reinforced stitches. I always make it stronger by slipping stitches so that it grows slower and is therefore stronger.
Heel flap, right side
Heel flap, wrong side.
I always use a set of five double-pointed needles to knit socks. If the socks are not large men’s size, I use short 13-cm ones. They require fewer hand movements than longer ones. Many people knit socks on a circular needle, which works great too – just not for me!
You can also watch a tutorial for an entire basic sock here.
See video tutorial: Turning a SOCK HEEL is easier than you think! Knitting tutorial
