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.

Erssie Knits & Other Tutorial Videos

Below are some short video clips from Erssie Knits to support various patterns (listed).
I have also included some video clips on other basic techniques from various sources with permission from their original owners. Enjoy!

Little Hourglass Ribbing Demo

This is the first of the demos to be made available for pattern support on the Erssieknits YouTube channel. This stitch demo, is to support the pattern Los Pequenos Relojes de Arena published in the Anticraft this issue (Samhain 2008)

I am still a novice at video, so bear with me and the quality will improve. I couldn't add captions to the video for access by the Deaf, so I have put speech bubbles up instead and have summarised what I am saying. I waffled on a bit, so only put the relevant instructions and I know this means the Deaf can only access part of what I am saying, but please believe me I have put the most important parts into the bubbles so you can do the stitch. You can see lots of other Erssie Knits videos being added, and to make life easy just click on Playlists on the ErssieKnits YouTube channel to see them grouped into subjects. I am uploading other people's knitting videos too so enjoy! Not many vids yet, but the thing is going to grow and grow.

Here is the Little Hourglass Ribbing video, just click on it to play.
Erm, in the voice over, I keep referring to the rounds as rows....wrong! I adapted this stitch to work in the round, so think round round round not row
There are no mistakes in the actual method though, this is totally correct for round 2 of the stitch pattern

Tutorial Videos for Beginners and Intermediates

Here are some video clips from Let's Knit magazine that demonstrate some basic techniques

Video 1
Tying a Slip Knot


LetsKnit.co.uk - Demo 01 - Tying a slipknot from The Crafts Channel on Vimeo.



Video 2
Casting on Using the thumb method


LetsKnit.co.uk - Demo 02 - Casting On - Thumb Method from The Crafts Channel on Vimeo.


Video 3
Casting On Using The Two Needle Method

I use this for lace on its own, or I use it as her basic cast on method but to make a firmer edge I knit into the backs of the loops on the first row and as well as firm it is a purled edge that is even and decorative from both sides.

However, knitting through the backs of loops (K tbl) can be tight, so where necessary cast on with a slightly larger needle if you want to knit into back loops then transfer to your normal needle on the first proper row of the pattern.

LetsKnit.co.uk - Demo 03 - Casting On - 2 Needles Method from The Crafts Channel on Vimeo.

Video 4
The Knit Stitch/Garter Stitch

LetsKnit.co.uk - Demo 04 - Casting On - Garter Stitch from The Crafts Channel on Vimeo.

Video 5
The Purl Stitch




LetsKnit.co.uk - Demo 05 - Casting On - Purl Stitch from The Crafts Channel on Vimeo.

Short Rows

Cat Bhordi has some very useful video clips to show wrapping and turning and picking up and hiding wraps on the heel of a sock, plus a few more. Here is one of them



Provisional Cast On Methods:
See ErssieKnits YouTube Playlists and read these notes
This is supposed to be an advanced technique but actually it is quite simple.
The purpose of it is to be able to cast on leaving a temporary edge, from which you will be able to knit downwards later. Why would you want to do that? Well it is used where a toe is knitted for a sock, and then the edge is shaped round and joined in a toe shape so the the cast on edge is unravelled and the live stitches are picked up.

I have also used it in hats, perhaps I have a hat and I am not sure exactly how long I want the hat and want to style it by look rather than measurements. I might have a provisionally cast on brim and knit up and do the crown as normal, but perhaps undo the brim edge and pick up the live stitches at the bottom once the crown is done to get the perfect length. This is a brilliant way of getting a good fit on a Rasta garment.

Perhaps as well you might have a garment that require a decorative edging later, and picking up live stitches and knitting downwards would be perfect for this.
One word of warning about that though is that when you knit downwards, your loops/stitches are slightly offset by half a stitch, so you cannot match rib to rib going in opposite directions or any complicated pattern easily.

There are several methods of provisional cast on. Some you knit onto a needle, and others use a crochet hook to knit stitches onto another needle. Then there is a fiddly way of picking up underside loops on a crochet chain. I use a very simple method with my hand disability. I just knit in waste yarn, then change to main yarn and later pick up the loops of the first row of the main yarn really easily with a flexible circular needle and literally cut the waste yarn off.

Whichever method you use, the important thing is to be able to pick up the required number of stitches and you need to undo the cast on edge to be able to do this or cut it off like me.

Another Tip: Beginners struggle to get the right number of stitches and think they have dropped one when they go to pick up stitches and undo the cast on. Actually as I said the stitches are slightly offset from the ones you were working on upwards, so when you pick up the live stitches you may find you have one less and will need to just make the numbers up by picking up one stitch in the corner. Sometimes, I make that a bit easier by knitting one more stitch than asked for on the provisional cast on, and then decreasing it by one somewhere it doesn't show as I go upwards, so that gives me exactly the number of stitches I need when I go to the cast on edge to pick up the live stitches.

I am slowly collecting videos to demonstrate these methods which you will find over on the ErssieKnits YouTube channel. I am going to video some of my own techniques when I have a moment so look out for them here and on that channel

Wanna See more videos? Go to ErssieKnits YouTube
A new channel aiming to broadcast Erssie Knits videos and putting together some of Erssie's choices from around YouTube into useful playlists covering a variety of techniques as well as showing any quirky knitting fun in the community.
More videos coming soon...
If you have made any fun or useful videos related to knitting let me know and I can broadcast it with our permission.