Your first sock heel affects you

I made my first pair of knit socks using a pattern called Socks of Kindness. Some of the other tutorials and patterns I had seen seemed much more intimidating, requiring you to measure several different parts of your feet. The Socks of Kindness pattern seemed more approachable with its link to a tutorial for the heel and directions for the rest of the sock without so much measuring. Then, when I completed my first pair of socks and they fit perfectly with the magical heel that just formed itself and didn't require measurements, I became a short row heel fan.

Maybe I should have named my first pair of socks "Socks of Confidence". Although they weren't perfect, they made sock construction seem not so challenging after all. I made two more pairs shortly after and followed the same general idea without the lace pattern and with my own personal tweaks. The short row heel fit both male and female feet and the method was easy to memorize. And, as I've noticed now that I started knitting socks, the short row heel seems to be standard for store-bought socks. It appears that every pair of socks I own use a short row heel. Interesting.

Now, the other Ludistitchers have not yet done short row heels. They have always used some sort of heel flap with gussets. It looks like it could be bulkier and might feel different when worn in shoes, but it seems incredibly popular with knitters. And although it looks more complex and a lot less magical, I wanted to bridge the gap between our knitting experience so I've decided to take it on for my current pair of socks.

All of that brings me to my first impressions of the heel flap and gusset construction... it takes a really long time! Of course any new method takes longer the first time around, but this method requires a lot more knitting before getting back to normal foot rounds. So far it's taken me almost 3 to 4 times as long to work on this type of heel and I'm still not back to knitting normal rounds yet. I'm reserving judgment until I have the pair of socks completed so that I can wear them and compare the fit, but I definitely miss the reward of quickly turning the short row heel and getting right back to knitting the rounds for the foot.