My Secret Trick for Vanilla Latte Socks: A Fish Lips Kiss Heel!

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I’m writing this post to share one of my favorite variegated sock yarn patterns: Vanilla Latte Socks by Virginia Rose-Jeanes.  This free pattern is absolutely fabulous for hand-painted and variegated sock yarns!  With these bold yarns, it’s best to pick a simple stitch pattern that will let the yarn do the talking.  I love Vanilla Latte because it’s more interesting to knit than plain stockinette or ribbing, but it’s not too busy so that it will take away from the gorgeous dye work in these special yarns.

The gorgeous yarn in my most recent pair below is Knit Picks Muse Hand-Painted in Impulse.  Muse is a newer yarn line at Knit Picks and it’s quickly become one of my favorites.  It’s super luxurious but still very affordable. You can also see an example of some Vanilla Latte Socks knitted with speckled yarn here.

BUT…  there is an important secret trick to this yarn and pattern pairing:

The Fish Lips Kiss Heel

The FLK heel is a special heel technique developed by the Sox Therapist that is a game changer if you like to work with variegated yarns.  It’s essentially a short row heel but there is no insane wrapping and turning, cursing, or inevitable holes that always accompany that madness.  I can’t go into too much detail about how it’s worked because I don’t want to step on the designer’s toes – she shares the technique in a $1 download that also includes fantastic information about custom sock-fitting.  It’s well-worth the price.

Why do I call it a game changer?  Anyone who has worked a traditional heel flap & gusset heel in a variegated yarn knows the pain of color pooling.  That’s where your colors were patterning in a predictable way all through the leg of the sock, but when the stitch counts change drastically in the heel flap and gusset, the patterning changes and causes weird disruptions in your sock’s color mojo.  Here is an example of what I’m talking about:

Now, here’s the sock with a fish lips kiss heel: see how there isn’t any interruption in the color flow?

(Yeah, those pictures aren’t my very best work photography-wise, but I’m taking a hit to my ego and sharing them anyway because they illustrate the magic of the FLK heel!)

The yarn I used in the first photos above – the Knit Picks Muse – is designed to resist color pooling, so it may have been okay to go with the traditional heel described in the Vanilla Latte pattern, but the FLK heel is so easy, I figure why risk it?

Per usual, here are the details of these socks:

yarn details

Knit Picks Muse Hand-Painted Sock Yarn in Impulse
Fingering Weight
75% Superwash Merino Wool, 25% Nylon
Machine Wash Gentle Cold / Tumble Dry Low (I will lay flat to dry)
$15.99 per 100g/423 yd skein
Purchased in March 2021

project details

pattern: “Vanilla Latte Socks” by Virginia Rose-Jeanes (this pattern is no longer available on Ravelry but check out this post for guidance on how to knit Vanilla Latte socks)
size knit: CO 64
needles: US size 1 (2.25 mm), wood dpns
gauge: 9 stitches x 13 rows per inch in stockinette (unblocked)
yarn used: 275 yards (65 grams)
finished size: Back of heel to tip of toe: 9”, Bottom of heel to top of cuff: 8”
duration: April to October, 2021