April 29, 2021: This is my first socks on dpns. I have done magic loop before.

This is my first of the Weldon’s Practical Stocking Knitter socks. It’s what they call a French Heel. I purchased a digitally restored copy from LongThreadMedia, here and I plan on making these heels and toes one after the other, or at least most of them.

It’s a classic cuff-down, gusset-heel-flap construction. I used Eye of the Patridge pattern for the heel flap. The sock uses a Round Heel construction with a slight variation which Roxanne Richardson calls a “rounder” heel.

My foot circumference is 9”. With a 11% negative ease my sock needs to be 8” in circumference. My gauge is 8sts/inch on 2.5mm needles. So, German Twisted Cast On 64 + 1 sts on US 2 needles. Transferred to US 1.5 (=2.5mm), 9” circulars. Joined in the round and reduced a stitch when joining. This makes for a very smooth join. Here’s a video showing the technique.

Here is Roxanne Richardson’s tutorial on a round heel and the rounder heel variation. She explains that a to work a classic round heel you do this:

1. Divide the sts into two parts - heel sts and instep sts.
2. Place a marker exactly in the middle of the heel sts. If you have 32 sts, place the marker between the 16th and 17th sts.
3. Round Heel - Knit up to two sts past the middle marker, SSK, K1 and turn. You always do a k1 after the ssk. On the WS row, Slip the 1st st, p5 (which is purl to 2 sts after the marker), p2tog and p1. Again, you always work the p1 after the p2tog.
4. The Round Heel (also called French Heel or Gusset Heel in Weldon’s Practical Stocking Knitter) asks you to knit up to one st past the middle marker (they have a separate purled middle st that they call the “seam stitch” to mark the middle of the heel), sl1k1psso instead of an SSK, K1 and turn. Then on the purl row, you work sl1, p4 (which is 1 st beyond the middle marker), p2tog, p1, turn.
5. For a Rounder Heel, you knit to three sts after the marker, ssk, k1. On the return row you work sl1, p7, p2tog, p1. This was the instruction on this pattern and this is what I did for this sock.
6. Remember to always work the k1 after the SSK and the p1 after the p2tog. This is what distinguishes a Round-heel (aka French-Heel) with a Dutch-Heel (aka Square-Heel).

Toe decreases. I need a foot length of 9.75”. The toe pattern is a Rounded Wedge Toe and the decreases in the original pattern span 16 rows. I did not work the last set of decreases. Stopped after the 4th every-row decrease leaving 6 sts on each needle. I have a row gauge of 12 sts to an inch. My decreases added about 1.25” to the sock length. I started the toe decreases when the sock measured 7.75” from the heel to the beginning of toe decreases. The yarn has quite a bit of elasticity. Overall, it’s a great fit.

Here is Kate Atherley explaining why heel-flap-gusset construction fit better than short row heels. She gives instructions for a square heel, which will be my next project. This sock is a modified round heel (a rounder heel if you like).

The pattern as written makes a lovely sock but the pattern on the foot part is asymmetric! You have a column of 2-st garter column going down on one side of the foot but not on the other side. If you want symmetry, do what C-Note suggested. Instead of k6, p2 (as in the pattern description), work k3, p2, k3.

The other (minor) issue I encountered is in the directions
for the toe. If you follow the directions as written (unless I am missing something obvious) the toe will be rotated 90 degrees compared to its normal position. So this is what I did:
Start at the middle of the heel.
Knit the sts on needle 1 until 3 sts remain. ssk, k1.
On Needle 2 work k1, k2tog, knit remaining sts.
On needles 3 - work as needle 1.
On needle 4 - work as needle 2.

Here is Suzanne Bryan’s video of Kitchener without dog ears and a reminder to weave in the ends on the instep and not the sole.

I would not recommend this pattern to someone who is totally new to sock knitting. That being said, this sock looks and feels awesome and fits my heel beautifully! However, next time I will cast on 60 sts for a marginally tighter fit. The fit is quite OK as is. I am being picky.