As the Heel Turns

"What do you want for Christmas?"

"Socks."

"What do you want for your birthday?"

"Socks."

"What do you want to knit?"

"Socks."

Detect a pattern here? My mom knits the best socks. Three years ago she knit each of us a pair of socks for Christmas. At my last Birthday I begged for another pair. I wear them whenever they are out of the wash, and I do laundry everyday. Or at least it seems that way. And as you might have gathered, the most requested gift from this mom to my mom is socks. So when I started knitting, it was with the goal to knit socks.

As I've gotten older I feel less thwarted by my own personal limitations. For example, knitting socks. I might not know how to turn a heel, or even understand what the pattern is telling me to do, but I can knit the cuff and start the foot. And that is where I am. I have the cuff, and most of the heel done. I don't understand how to turn the heel. Since we talk most days, I asked my mom about the instructions. She replied, "My pattern doesn't do the turn that way."

I got the pattern from my sister-in-law in Vermont, another great knitter. So perhaps a roadtrip or at the very least a phone call is in order, but for laughs here is what the directions say:

Row 1: Purl 18, p2 together, p1, turn
Row 2: slip; 1 as if to purl, k5, slip 1 as if to knit, slip 1 as if to knit, knit the two slipped stitches together (ssk), k1, turn
Row 3: slip 1, p6, p2tog, p1 turn
Row 4: slip, k7, ssk, k1, turn
Row5: slip 1, p8, p2tog, p1, turn... Strange enough, I can follow this.

Here is the problem... Continue working in this manner until all stitches have been worked. The last row worked should be a knit row.

I looked up worked in the dictionary, and there are no further instructions listed. So... my plan is to start the heel and pray for an all will be revealed moment.

At every turn, life is a learning experience.