Hi Kate,
Good thing you have 17th century in your signature — that's the
period for your stockings, right?
Ok so at the ankle, you're holding the stitches at the front
and knitting the heel flap. Then you have to form the part that cups
around the heel.
Knit halfway across the heel flap.
When you fold it in half, the "raw" edge (The part you just
knitted) should be touching itself. The fold is vertical.
That "raw" edge is then finished/attached to itself with a 3-
needle bindoff. Kitchener had not been invented yet, but some people
like to do that for a smoother join. Starting from the center (back
of the heel) join the two edges, ending at the bottom/underneath the
heel.
You will end up with the heel flap shaped like a corner.
That's a "common heel." There are ways of shaping a little bit so
it's rounder instead of having that little point at the corner, but
the point is perfectly correct for 17thC.
So you have this heel pocket, and the edge is all the side of
the knitting. You pick up stitches from that edge, and knit out
sideways (along with the stitches from the top of the ankle) to make
the foot.
I was looking around on the web, I thought someone had stocking
instructions with illustrations of one in progress.
I hope this clarifies it! You may also want to try the Historic
Knit list, or check out Ravelry.com for more resources.
-Carol
On Nov 28, 2008, at 9:46 AM, Kate Bunting wrote:
In some sets of instructions for knitting period stockings, you are
told to "fold the heel flap in half". I'm a fairly experienced
knitter, but I can't make sense of this. Can anyone advise? I
assume it means to fold the flap edge-to-edge rather than to double
it back on itself.
Kate Bunting
Librarian & 17th century reenactor.
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