Short ribs

Last year, I knit my mother-in-law a pair of socks out of Cascade Fixation. I wish that I could show you a picture of last year's socks finished, but it seems that I didn't take any. I can show you a nice in progress picture and mention that the socks were my gold medal Knitting Olympics project. But I digress. I intended for her to be able to wear those socks as regular socks, you know, inside shoes. As it turned out, she found them too warm for that. Did I mention that my mother-in-law lives in the warmest part of the country? Instead, she wears them as bed socks to keep her toes all toasty during the chill of desert nights.

I developed the Short Rib Socks here to knit mom a second pair of night socks. What makes these special to me is the way that I turned the heel. Instead of a regular Stockinette short row heel, I continued the slip-knit patterning of the heel flap all the way through the turn. The second picture shows a close up of the turn and you can see even more detail if you embiggen.

Although I posted the yardage estimate as two balls of Fixation, if you knit the leg short like you see here, you will use considerably less. If you like longer socks, you could probably knit a 5-6" leg out of two balls. Also, please note that the heel flap and heel turn directions begin on wrong side rows.

Short Rib Socks
Size
Knit for a woman's 8½ (US) foot but the ribbing provides a lot of leeway for a smaller or a larger foot.

Materials
~2 balls Cascade Fixation
one set of size 2 dpns

Gauge
30 st over 4" in garter st in the round on size 2 needles

Cuff/Leg
Cast on 64 sts. Join being careful not to twist.
Work 2 x 2 rib for about 3" (~40 rounds). Turn.

Heel Flap (worked over 32 sts)
Row 1 (WS): Sl1, p31*
Row 2: Sl1, k1* rep btwn *
Work heel flap for 18 repeats (36 rows).

Turn Heel
This heel turn continues the slip-knit patterning of the heel flap.

Row 1 (WS): Sl1, p18, p2tog, p1 turn
Row 2: Sl2, (k1, sl1) 3x, ssk, k1
Row 3: Sl1, p8, p2tog, p1 turn
Row 4: Sl1, (k1, sl1) 4x, k1, ssk, k1
Row 5: Sl1, p10, p2tog, p1 turn
Row 6: Sl2, (k1, sl1) 5x, ssk, k1
Row 7: Sl1, p12, p2tog, p1 turn
Row 8: Sl1, (k1, sl1) 6x, k1, ssk, k1
Row 9: Sl1, p14, p2tog, p1 turn
Row 10: Sl2, (k1, sl1) 7x, ssk, k1
Row 11: Sl1, p16, p2tog, p1 turn
Row 12: Sl1, (k1, sl1) 8x, k1, ssk, k1
Twenty sts rem.

Ankle Join
Pick up 19-21 sts along side of heel flap for gusset. Knit instep stitches in pattern. Pick up 19-21 sts along side of heel flap for gusset. K20.

Arrange sts so that needle 1 holds the first half of the heel sts and one side of gusset sts; needles 2 and 3 each hold half of the instep sts; and needle 4 holds the other side of the gusset sts plus the second half of the heel sts.

Gussets
Round 1 - Knit
Round 2 -
  Needle 1 - Knit up to last 3 sts, k2tog, k1
  Needle 2 - Knit in est pattern
  Needle 3 - Knit in est pattern
  Needle 4 - K1, ssk, knit to end of needle

Work gusset decreases until each needle has 16 sts.

Foot
Knit in est pattern until foot measures about 2" less than desired length (44 rounds worked for a size 8½ US foot).
Knit one round even.

Toe Shaping
Round 1 -
  Needle 1 - Knit to last 3 sts, k2tog, k1
  Needle 2 - K1, ssk, knit end of needle
  Needle 3 - Same as needle 1
  Needle 4 - Same as needle 2
Round 2 - Knit.

Repeat rounds 1 and 2 until 24-32 sts rem (depending on how pointy you like your socks). Knit to end of needle 1. Graft rem sts.