Skeinspotting: October 2009

Short Row Heels Wrapping and Picking up the Wraps

I am working on heels at the moment. Sometimes I want wraps to show as a decorative thing, and other times like now I want the wraps totally hidden from sight as the gauge is quite large. Here is what I am going to do. You can go to the ErssieKnits YouTube channel and see several videos for this, including Cat Bhordi's narrated example.

1, Making wraps
On RS of St St
K to stitch to be wrapped and bring yarn fwd
Slip next st K-wise (to change the mount*) Take yarn back bet needles again
Now slip the previously slipped stitch, back onto LH needle tip to tip without changing the mount*.
Turn work......

2. Making wraps
On WS of St St
P to stitch to be wrapped and bring yarn fwd bet needles
Slip next st P-wise (without changing the mount*) Take yarn back bet needles again
Now slip the previously slipped stitch, back onto LH needle tip to tip without changing the mount.
Turn work......

Cont working back and forth and on a heel, you are looking to wrap about one third of stitches each side, with the majority or biggest third in the middle.
E.g. my heel had 25 sts, I wrapped 8 on each side with 9 in the middle left unwrapped.

3. Picking up wraps
On RS of St St
On the RS of stocking stitch K to the first wrapped st
Pick up wrap from underneath at the front, and slip wrap up and over the st on the needle and sit it behind the stitch.
Your wrap is now behind the stitch it previously wrapped
K st and wrap tog tbl, this hides wrap on WS
Wrap the next st as above in 1. This means each stitch will be wrapped twice from now on.
Turn work......

3. Picking up wraps
On WS of St St
On the WS of stocking stitch P to the first wrapped st
Pick up wrap from underneath AT THE FRONT OF WORK, and slip wrap up and over the st on the needle to sit behind it.
Your wrap is now behind the stitch it previously wrapped
P st and wrap tog as normal, this hides wrap on WS
Wrap the next st as above in 2. This means each stitch will be wrapped twice

Turn work Cont working back and forth, picking up wraps from one st each side (remember to do exactly the same with your 2 wraps, as you did for one. i.e. pick them both up and over the stitch before working the wraps tog with the st)

When all sts have been picked up it will then be time to continue working across the front of the foot and back into rounds.

*Mount This means how the stitch 'mounts' the needle i.e. how the loop of a stitch sits on it. A stitch has two 'legs' coming down each side of the needle. A stitch can sit with its right leg in front and its left leg behind the needle like this. This would be how you are used to seeing your stitch on the RS of stocking stitch (stockinette) and you would be knitting ordinarily through the front loop.

original artwork (c) Annie Modesitt
Please do not link to or use this diagram
without permission from the copyright owner.

Or it can sit with its left leg in front and its right leg behind the needle like this.
If you were to slip the stitch above, knit-wise, the stitch would then end up like this stitch below which you can see just begs to be knitted through the back loop.

original artwork (c) Annie Modesitt
Please do not link to or use this diagram without
permission from the copyright owner.

Many thanks to Annie Modesitt who allowed me to use and link to her own diagrams of stitch mount here . You can find out more about her knitting designs and her tutorials on her website and blog Modeknitting/Knitting Heretic

Tip
Here is a little tip which helps me avoid a 'gap' that most people get between their short row heel and their front of foot. I leave out the very last purl stitch wrapped.

When there is 1 wrapped stitch left each side, (i.e. the last 2 stitches to be picked up), I pick up the one on the RS/St st side as normal...but then I continue to work across front of foot and round the other side, and pick up the 'Purl' (now a K st on the RS) from the RS on the other side. Leaving out that very last purled row, means there is less of a step and less of a gap. Don't worry though, you can always on a Fair Isle piece just use one of the ends you are weaving in to close the gaps when you finish.

This little explanation will be repeated when the pattern for this project is published. However it might help people in general to read this and at the same time go to the YouTube channel to find vids on wrapping in my Playlists in the Knitting: Wonderful World of Wrapping section.

I collect tutorial videos, and put them into useful playlists so they can be found more easily so if you subscribe to the channel and bookmark it, it can be more useful than trying to search for individual videos. I have tried to make sure, that although my videos are from various sources that they do not conflict with each other.