then pull the yarn through the loop as if you were knitting an ordinary stitch and there’s your new stitch!

Continue to knit each round until desired length before start of heel (for me, this is 48 rounds in total including the rib). Hold the two DPNs with your left hand. Insert the wool needle purl-wise into the first stitch on the front DPN and pull the yarn through. Don’t take the stitch off the DPN. then join into a circle by bringing the needle with the working yarn around and knitting into the start of the round. Place a marker over your needle so that you know where your round starts and finishes. You’ll be able to sew up the small gap where the join is later when you sew in your tail end. Row 1: K2, *Sl1, K1* until you have 22 stitches on your needle, turn (slip the stitch by sliding it from one needle to the other without knitting it). Change to 3.5mm needles. At this point, change to a small circular, magic loop or divide the stitches evenly across three or four DPNs according to preference. To knit your stitches onto the circular needle, just use it in place of the DPN for the next row.

Cosy contrast socks by Paintbox Yarns

Round 1: K to 3 sts before the marker, K2tog, K1, slip marker, knit to next marker, slip marker, K1, SSK, K to marker. Repeat rounds 2 and 3 to shape the gusset. Continue in this way, decreasing by two stitches at the gusset on every other row until there are 44 stitches on the needle. Your gusset line will look like this: You are going to create the heel flap from half the number of stitches that you cast on, so if you have cast on more or less than 44 stitches, remember to adjust the number of stitches when you start the heel flap.

Note: I cast on using DPNs then change to my circular needle – it’s not easy to cast on using the circular as it’s so small. If you want to use magic loop you will be able to cast on with the larger circular needle. If you use DPNs, you might find it easiest to cast on and work 2 rows before dividing the stitches across the needles. Continue in this way, adding one stitch to each row until all your stitches are worked across your needle – eg, Sl1, P8, P2tog, P1; Sl1, K9, SSK, K1 etc. Repeat 2 and 3 until you get to the last two stitches on the DPNs. You can see how the Kitchener stitch creates a new row of “knitting” so that there is no seam on your toes. Round 3: K1, SSK, K to 3 sts before marker, K2tog, K1, slip marker, K1, SSK, K to 3 sts before marker, K2tog, K1If you are knitting with a 30cm circular needles, you will need to change to 3.5mm DPNs to start the heel flap. If you are using a long circular for magic loop, place a marker over your needle at this point – there’s no need to do this if you’re using a short circular or DPNs as it will just fall off! This row is your set up row which gets you to the middle of your heel with stitches left on your needle on either side. You are going to work the stitches in the middle of your needle all the time, bringing one stitch in from either side on every other row to create a V-shaped heel.

You can always tell where you’re up to as there will be a gap between the last stitch worked on the previous row and the stitches that are still be included in the heel.