Summary: Modifying this design to fit high insteps turned out to be quite the experiment. Increasing the side mini gussets did not provide ample space. Adding gussets to the back of the heels worked. The heel design (before my mods) is similar to the sweet tomato heel but only has 2 wedges. The resulting heel is round, fits well, and is hard to lay flat for photos.

Method

• Used US 0 needles for cuff and US 1 for rest of sock.

• Used Judy’s Magic Cast On (as a provisional CO), let bottom needles rest while working cuff with top needles, then brought bottom needle up behind top needle and knit top and bottom needle stitches together.

• 1st Attempt (sock 1): Used 68 st count. Followed instructions, but worked 4 additional rounds before starting heel to result in 2 additional gusset increases. Sock was too tight and could barely slip over heel. Frogged.

• 2nd Attempt (sock 1): Used 72 st count size, but CO 76 sts. After cuff completion, I purled 3 sts into each gusset (instead of 1) in round 1 then worked gusset increases every other row, per pattern instructions. The foot was gradually decreased to 72 sts after heel completion, per pattern instructions. The larger sock size and placing the extra gusset stitches in the first round (instead of gradually working up to them) resulted in a better (though not perfect) fit. The instep is still tight.

• 3rd Attempt (sock 1): Same as 2nd attempt, but worked an additional gusset into the back of the heel (which added 8 extra sts). Tried improved German short rows (looked better on purl side but not on knit side). I originally tried dividing the heel stitch count into thirds for left heel dsts, center sts, and right heel dsts, but heel was too deep. Tinked back then re-tried keeping the same number of dsts on each side of the heel recommended by pattern and placing the extra gusset sts with the center sts. This worked out great!!! Yay!! I decreased 1/2 of the additional back gusset stitches while working the second wedge of the heel and decreased the remaining additional back gusset stitches after 2nd heel wedge completion (on rounds in which side mini purl gusset stitches were not being decreased). This was a lot, but I’m really pleased with the fit. Yarn usage for this sock was 34g.

• Sock 2: Decreased all the additional back heel gusset sts (every 4 rows) while working the second heel wedge (instead of decreasing 4 stitches before and after second heel wedge as in 1st sock). Made the fit even better!

• Closed toes with Finchley graft.

Additional back heel gusset increases

• Place markers on each side of center stitch on needle 1
• Round 1-K to 1 st before center. RLI, sm, k, sm, LLI, k to end.
• Round 2-K.
• Work rounds 1 and 2 rows until you have the desired number of sts.

Additional back gusset decreases

• Place markers on each side of center stitch on needle 1
• Round 1-K to 2 sts before center. K2tog, sm, k, sm, SSK, k to end.
• Round 2 through 4-K.
• Work rounds 1 and 2 rows until you have the desired number of sts.

Helpful Videos
JMCO
JMCO as a provisional CO
4 out of 2 stitch
A better way to knit German short rows
LLI & RLI
Sweet Tomato Heel Tutorial