I'm lucky! I get to preview the patterns in each issue of Knitty well in advance. When I find instructions that might give a knitter pause or a technique that would be fun to explore in depth, I put on my teacher hat and see what we can learn together.

As the Techniques Columnist at Knitty, I will continue the worldwide knitting community's tradition of sharing knowledge. Follow my lead and try something that might be new to you! Whether you adopt it wholesale, adapt it to your needs, or throw it out, you'll surely gain something by trying.

Knitter, heel thyself.

Socks are miracles in themselves, a three-dimensional wonder created from a single unbroken string. Spring is a great time to jump right in and give sock-knitting a try.

I’d like to talk about the heel flaps in Rectify and Eternal Spring, two sock patterns in this issue of Knitty. Each of these calls for a common heel flap stitch pattern, where the wrong side is purled (except that first slipped stitch so you have a nice place to aim your needle for picking up stitches later), and the right side is worked in a repeating slip one, knit one pattern.

To make the execution of that pattern a little more fun, I’d like to share one of my favorite parlor tricks I learned at the Nordic Knitting Conference hosted by the Nordic Heritage Museum in Seattle’s Ballard neighborhood. Annemor Sundbø taught us this nifty little maneuver. Take a look.

K1, sl1 in one move.

Now in order to follow the pattern, and to keep track of how long you made your flap, here’s another tip. The usual tool, a click-it counter, is of no use to me. I can’t remember whether or not I clicked the darned thing, so I can’t trust it. The same thing goes for making tick marks on paper. I’m better off training myself how to read my knitting. Here’s how to read your heel flap.

How to count heel flap pattern repeats.

Lastly, in each of these socks, you can customize the fit over the ankle without disturbing the pattern on the instep. The following video helps you understand how you can be the boss of that part of the instructions and make adaptations to suit your needs. If you have a high instep, make adjustments so the stitches are not strained over your instep. Low instep? You can fix that, too. Watch the clip.

Adjusting heel flap length for the best fit.

Materials used in this column are pictured above: Addi Click Long Lace Needle Kit and Addi Rocket needles. Yarn is HiKoo CoBaSi DK. All from Skacel Collection, Inc, the kind sponsors of this column.

Lorilee knits. She also collects National Park experiences and likes being close to rocks, mosses, and lichens.

Her designs have been published by Vogue and Interweave, and she teaches at national fiber events as well as online at Craftsy and Interweave. Lorilee grew up in Pittsburgh, spent thirty years in west Michigan, and now calls Seattle home.

Find her at lorileebeltman.com.