Eckstein Socks

Recently, at a departement store I saw a pair of socks with a heel at a right angle. The claim was that it would be more comfortable to wear because there'd be no crease at the instep. Well, I wanted to try this myself - especially whether they really fitted better. It took me only two attempts to get the shaping right - and even though the socks look a bit strange, they fit rather well.
So, here's the pattern: a pair of socks knitted cuff-down with a right angled heel.

As with most of my sock patterns, I assume that you already have a certain knowledge of how to knit socks. So, this is NOT a stitch-by-stitch and row-by-row pattern.


This work by Knitting and so on is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.






Materials

• about 50 to 70 grams of fingering weight yarn - a bit more if you like your shaft to be longer (the yarn I used is called Schöller+Stahl Sockina Color, here's the link to the yarn's page on Ravelry)
• 2.5 mm knitting needles - I used Addi Crazy Trios, but you can also use long circulars (with the Magic Loop method) or dpns
• 2 stitch markers
• a tapestry needle to weave in ends

Techniques

• Shadow Wrap Short Rows - as used for the heel: as shown in this YouTube video by Lee Meredith. A video by Miriam Felton that shows how to do a heel with shadow wraps can be found here on YouTube. However, I pick up the stitches in a different manner. 

• Knitting the Shadow Wraps: In a knit row (i.e. you're knitting on the outside of your socks), you knit up to the stitch where you want to turn, and then knit into the stitch in the row below, i.e. you insert the right hand needle from the front into the stitch below (1 on picture below) the next stitch and pull your working yarn through (2 on picture below). Then you put the loop onto the left hand needle (creating a double stitch from the stitch below) - keeping the yarn on the back (3 on picture below). Then you turn and your yarn is now in front, tighten it to make sure that all stitches have the same size and start to purl in the opposite direction. This sequence (knitting int the stitch below and turning) will be called kbelow in the pattern.

• If you're in a purl row, you purl into the stitch of the row below, i.e. insert the right hand needle from the back into the stitch below and draw your yarn through and put the stitch onto your left hand needle - creating a double stitch. The yarn is in front while you're doing this. Turn your work. The yarn is now on the back of your knitting. Make sure that the stitch is as tight as the other stitches on your needles and start knitting in the opposite direction. This sequence will be called pbelow in the pattern.

• In this pattern you'll be asked to kbelow/pbelow into a stitch that is already a double stitch, i.e. creating a triple stitch.
• Picking up the double / triple stitches: When you come to a double stitch you can simply knit / purl it as one. This can create quite thick stitches and small holes that might be uncomfortable and not really neat. That's why (on the knit side, outside of the sock) I knitted the triple stitch as follows: slip the first loop of your triple stitch as if to knit (1 on picture below). Slip the second stitch of the triple stitch as if to knit - and do the same with the third stitch (2 on picture below). Slip all three stitches together back onto the left hand needle (i.e. each of the stitches is turned now). Now knit them together through the back loop (3 on picture below).

• On the purl side I worked the triple stitch like a normal purl 3 together.
• To avoid holes it is quite important to draw your second and third loops quite tight when turning.

• Grafting in stockinette stitch (also called Kitchener Stitch): a way to seamlessly join two rows of live stitches - as shown in this YouTube video by WEBS America's Yarn Store.

Gauge and Sizes
In stockinette stitch, I had 21 rows for 5cm in height and 15 stitches for 5 cm in width.
With my gauge, a heel (size 36-39) is 8 cm high and wide. Therefore, it's about 0.25 cm less for sizes 32-35, and about 0.25cm more for sizes 40-43.

Here are the stitch counts for the sizes given:

shoe size	total number of stitches	short rows	stitches w/o short rows (top)	stitches w/o short rows (below heel)
33-35	56 = 2x28	19	4	5
36-39	60 = 2x30	20	4	6
40-42	64 = 2x32	21	5	6

Instructions for sizes are given as follows: sizes 32-35 [sizes 36-39, sizes 40-43]. I.e. the instructions before the brackets are for sizes 32 to 35 and in brackets first for sizes 36 to 39 and then for sizes 40 to 43.

Instructions

Cuff
CO 56 [60, 64] stitches and join in round - the start of a round will be at the back of the calf
Knit 15 rounds of k2p2-ribbing
Knit 20 rounds of stockinette stitch - during the last round place a stitch marker after 28 [30, 32] stitches, i.e. after half the stitches

Heel
R1: k to 5 [5, 6] sts before half, kbelow, p to end, p to 5 [5, 6] sts before half, pbelow, k to end
R2: k to 2 sts before last double stitch, kbelow (i.e. now there are two double stitches next to each other), p to end, p to 2 before last double stitch, pbelow, k to end
Repeat R2 17 [18, 19] more times

Now you have 19 [20, 21] double stitches on each side of your heel and your piece should look similar to the photo on the right.

R3: k to first double stitch, k this stitch, kbelow (now you have a triple stitch), p to end, p to first double stitch, p this stitch, pbelow (another triple stitch), k to end - make sure to draw your (third) loops tight before turning.
R4: k to first triple stitch, k this stitch, kbelow, p to end, p to first triple stitch, pbelow, k to end
Repeat R4 until you have used up all your double stitches. Now you have finished your heel and can go on knitting in rounds again.

You'll encounter two leftover triple stitches in the next round

• work the first one (i.e. that was created on the k-side) as before
• work the second one (i.e. that was created on the p-side) also by turning the loops one by one before knitting it.

Remove the stitch marker you replaced at the half point.


Foot
Knit in stockinette until you are 5 cm short of the desired total foot length.
Place two stitch markers while knitting the last round, one at 1/4 of your stitches (i.e. after 14, [15, 16] stiches - called M1) and one after 3/4 of your stitches (i.e. after 42, [45, 48] stitches - called M2).


Toes
Knit to M1 - the following rounds will start and end at this marker, i.e. the rounds will from now on start at the side of your foot.
R1: k1, ssk, k to 3 bef M2, k2tog, k1, slip marker, k1, ssk1, k to 3 bef M1, k1 (decrease row)
R2: k all
R3 = R2
R4 = R2
R5 = R1 (decrease row)
R6 = R2
R7 = R2
R8 = R1 (decrease row)
R9 = R2
R10 = R2
R11 = R1 (decrease row)
R12 = R2
R13 = R1 (decrease row)
R14 = R2
R15 = R1 (decrease row)
R16 = R2
R17 = R1 (decrease row)
R18 = R1 (decrease row)
R19 = R1 (decrease row)
R20 = R1 (decrease row)

Now you have a total of 16, [20, 24] stitches left, i.e. 2x8, [2x10, 2x12] stitches.
Rearrange your stitches to sit on two needles - with needle 1 holding the stitches between M1 and M2, and the other holding the stitches between M2 and M1.
Cut yarn and graft toes in stockinette stitch.

Weave in ends.
Make two.