A Sock Surgeon’s Afterthought Heel

So, it’s no secret that I’m obsessed with self-striping yarn and I almost always use it to knit Grumperina’s Jaywalkers because I love that pattern!  However, I really don’t like how the striping gets messed up at the heel/gusset so I was interested in trying something new: an afterthought heel.  That way I can knit the whole body of the sock in one pass and the stripes will be nice and tidy, then I can go back and add the heel.  Pretty cool, huh?

There’s lots of ways to do it, but I decided to go with Emily B. Miller’s method in a Sock Surgeon’s Afterthought Heel.  This is a pretty cool method because you don’t have to do any pre-planning about where to place the heel and you actually go in and snip the yarn later to add the heel.

Snipping into your sock is a little unnerving… but in the end, it was pretty awesome!!

Here are some pics:

Right after I cut into the sock and picked up the first few stitches…  the super scary part!

After I picked up all the stitches — lots of waste yarn to weave in later!

Knitting the heel!  (hint – it’s a toe!!)
I recommend trying this method!  It’s awesome!