Three cheers for the turning of the heels on this Crazy Tolstoy sock project! Last night's Knit & Wine gathering in Cedar Falls provided the motivation . At this point, if you are knitting these with us, I have a few "pointers" to pass on. First, when you get to the heel turn and it calls for you to "narrow", don't be confused.
"Narrow" is just old world language for "do a double decrease". Now I will admit, at first, when I read their directions, I said "No way, this is ridiculous" because in order to do the decrease you have to get the alternate stitch out of the way...according to their directions, this involves moving one stitch over to the right needle, putting the next off on a cable needle, moving the first one back, and so on till your reaching for the extra strength Advil.
But after a few of these I realized it's easy if you do it like you would a cable without a cable needle: Slip one stitch to right needle, stick right needle into front of second stitch on left needle, with right hand, pinch below the two stitches on left needle, slip left needle out of first two stitches, then quickly reinsert into what was the first stitch on the left needle. Then put the other two stitches on your right needle onto the left needle. Now you are ready for two decreases, one for each sock. Okay...looking back, that sounds horrific. But really, it's not, it's just not something I can explain well with the written word. So stop in and I'd love to show you. Maybe I'll do a video. :) Thanks to Molly Wade Photography for the awesome photos!