Narrow heels and socks

[untonuggan]

Question...

So I was knitting socks in my knitting group today, and I made a bit of a brain fart move while dividing stitches for the heel flap that I didn't notice until after I turned the heel. I'm trying to figure out if I need to pull back or not.

Backstory:

I accidentally didn't divide the stitches in half (as in, half for flap and half for the top of the foot). I didn't have them evenly distributed over my needles because of the nature of the pattern I'd been working on and...well...now my heel is about 4 sts less than the top of the foot.

However the saving grace may be that I'm making the socks for my mom, who can (1) try them on tomorrow night; (2) probably has narrow ankles (if she is like me). Our feet are fairly similar and I tried what's knitted so far on and found that the heel fits better than any of the "standard" heels I've done so far...so maybe this is an accidentally good discovery? Of course, it still remains to be seen if it will work for her heel.

Question:

If the heel fits my mom, then is there any structural reason why I shouldn't be able to do fewer than half the stitches for the heel flap? (I am thinking for myself now, too).

Edit: If it makes any difference, I am doing an Eye of the Patridge style heel...

Comments

[hellkitty]

In my experience, it depends how many stitches you use for the actual heel *turn* itself more than the flap. So you can make the center section of the heel turn a bit larger than 1/3 of those flap stitches to keep the cup itself the 'right' size, and just have a longer gusset.

[untonuggan]

Ooh, good point, that is what I will do if the cup is too narrow so I don't have to rip out the lovely eye of partridge prettiness.

[jumpuphigh]

Ooooh. I often find socks to be too baggy in my heels. Perhaps this is the answer. I must knit all my socks from now on and adjust the heels.

[untonuggan]

They are also uber comfortable. Like, so comfortable.

I am currently working on perfecting a sock pattern for my own feet, because my feet are just Hobbit feet. I have wide ankles, narrow heels, wide feet, and short feet. So no previously written pattern is comfortable. It's kind of a guessing game at the moment. The two pairs I've made myself are ankle socks, which is convenient because they are a mite baggy at the cuff. However I think I am getting closer to the elusive magic formula for my own feet...

Don't even talk to me about how long it takes for me to find shoes that fit.

[jumpuphigh]

Don't even talk to me about how long it takes for me to find shoes that fit.

Oh, I feel that pain. I tried on every single style of climbing shoes in the entire city before I found the sweet pair. And when I visited my cousin in Alaska, we went into a shoe store and they carried brands that fit me! By the end, he was repeatedly saying, "Can we leave now?" While I was saying, "Just a minute more! You don't understand! Shoes! That fit!"

:D

[untonuggan]

I can find shoes really easily in the UK, especially at Clarks. I think they just carry wider shoes there.

These days I don't even bother about style and I just go to hiking/running stores for my footwear, because for those activities it's really important to have good footwear and so the salespeople are really helpful/patient about finding good shoes. But most of them don't carry my size, so I have to special order the right one. Or do crazy things like order the smallest men's size in wide or something.

[sedge]

The half thing is arbitrary and not structural. If your "mistake" has produced a better fit for her, then go for it!

[untonuggan]

\o/

Will have to wait until tonight to check, but hopefully it will work out!

[starfish]

People often adjust it the other way for better fit (i.e. more than half the stitches for the heel) so go for it.

I just realized last night that I have to rip back about five rows because I overestimated the length of my partner's foot (after knitting him half-a-dozen pairs already) and there's no coming back from that.

[untonuggan]

Oh man, that sucks. When I have frustrations like that I usually put the knitting in time-out for a little bit so we can have some space and knit something completely different, but I guess perhaps he wants his socks...