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This is a sock with a Band Heel and a Wide Toe that is rotated 90 dgrees.

Feb 25, 2022: German Twisted Cast On 64 sts with US #2 (2.75mm) needles. I used Roxanne Richardson’s Jogless Cast On in the round for a perfect join at the cast on edge. Transferred to US #1.5 (2.5mm) needles and knit a k1P1 cuff. Knit one row of stockinette in white before starting the Stranded pattern. I worked the stranded pattern on US #2 (2.75mm) needles. The stranded pattern is from Mary-Jane Mucklestone’s book 150 Scandinavian Motifs: The Knitter’s Directory. I worked 4 repeats of the pattern.

Color value and Color Dominance: Light colors dominate in value. In parallel float stranded knitting the color at the bottom of the parallel float dominates. I wanted the two colors to show up evenly. So I carried green as my bottom float and white as the top float. Roxanne Richardson has several videos on this topic that are very useful.

I knit 12 rows in plain stockinette starting the heel. I reduced st count to 60 on the 8th row of this plain stockinette section.

The Band Heel is described on page 61 of Nancy Bush’s Folk Socks: The History and Techniques of Handknitted Footwear (Updated Edition). The Wide Toe (version 2) is described on page 64 and photographed on page 66.

Band Heel
A band heel is similar to a Dutch heel. It has a heel flap but the flap is half the height of a regular (Dutch/French) heel flap. It also has no gusset shaping. The heel is turned with short rows. Nancy Bush saw it worked on a Danish sock and wrote it up on Folk Socks. She has two patterns in the book (Estonian socks and Shetland socks) that use this heel.

My heel flap is knit over 30 sts and 14 rows.

Step 1: Put 30 heel sts on dpn 1; remaining 30 instep sts are on dpns 2 and 3.

Step 2: Put a locking st marker on first and last of the heel sts.

Step 3: Work the 30 heel sts back and forth for 14 rows.

Step 4: Keep working the 30 heel sts as follows: sl1 p-wise, k 9, k2tog, sm, k6, sm, ssk, k to the end (10 sts). Turn. sl1 p-wise, p to the end. Turn. Knit these two rows 3 times more for a total of 8 rows. I have now knit a total of 14 + 8 = 22 rows after dividing sts for the heel and instep.

Step 5: Shape the heel with short rows as follows:
Row 1: sl1 p-wise, k to the 2nd sm, ssk, turn.
Row 2: sl1 p-wise, p to the 2nd sm, p2tog, turn.
Repeat until all sts have bee worked and 6 + 2 side sts = 8 sts remain on the needle.

Step 6: With RS facing sl1 and knit to the center of the 6 st band. This is your new BOR.

Step 7: Pick up as many sts on the side of the heel flap so as to have a total st count equal to the original number for the sock; in my case 60 sts. I picked up 11 sts on each of the sides.

Heel done!

Knit 6.75” (57 rows) before starting toe decreases.

Wide Toe
I modified Nancy Bush’s Wide Toe Version 2 in the Folk Socks book to fit my needs. This is what I did, assuming that one is knitting using 5 dpns and the BOR is at the middle of the band heel:

Row 1: k3, SSK at the beg of needles1 and 3; K2tog, k3 on the last 5 sts on needles 2 and 4.
Rows 2 and 3: knit.
Row 4: same as row 1.
Rows 5 and 6: knit.
Row 7: same as row 1.
Row 8: knit.
Continue with rows 7 and 8 until 7 sts remain on each needle. Then reduce on every row until 16 sts remain in total. Kitchener close.

The toe decreases added 22 rows.

Measurements unblocked, un-stretched:
Length from cuff to beginning of heel: 5.5”
Length from heel turn to start of toe decreases: 6.25”
Length from heel turn to end of toe decreases: 8 and 1/8”

Measurements after blocking:
Cuff to beginning of heel flap: 16.2cm
Cuff to bottom of the heel: 22cm
Back of the heel to the tip of the toe: 22cm
Ankle (diagonal): 12.8cm; 11cm
Width-leg: 10.7cm
Width-ball of the foot: 9.4cm

Comments: I wanted to make the band heel just to try it out. The fit is not bad (on my heel), however, I think there are other heels that fit me better.