Cuff-Down vs. Toe-Up Socks Part 3 Cuff-Down French / Round Heel

Unbelievably, there are over dozens of ways to knit the heel of a sock: french (aka round), dutch (aka square), half-handkerchief (aka v-heel), gusset, fish lips, Fleegle, german short row, an afterthought, etc. Of course, the heel I found that fits best when I was knitting cuff-down socks is a heel that gets little to no attention for toe-up socks. My preferred heel is the french/round heel. I like this heel because it consists of a heel flap and gusset that can easily be adjusted from a flat instep to an extremely high instep. It’s also a narrow and snug heel, which is what everyone in my family has. In this blog post, I’ll talk a little about how to determine your instep and what alterations you can make, as well as cuff-down methods for knitting the french/round heel.

Sock Parts

What I’ll be talking about today is the heel flap (royal blue), heel turn (light blue), and gusset/instep (purple). Depending on the size and shape of your instep, you can change the fit of your sock by simply adjusting the length of the heel flap, which in turn will change how the gusset fits.

Measuring Your Instep

I have a very flat arch and a narrow instep (measured at a diagonal around the heel). Ryan has a very high arch and, therefore, a wide instep. I need less room in this area of my sock, and he needs a lot more room. This is why I ended up using the heel flap/gusset design to easily adjust the fit for our odd feet.

Adjusting the Instep

The key information to concentrate on is the number of stitches of the gusset you need along the heel flap‘s edge. I do not include the stitches associated with the heel turn. Those are in addition to the gusset stitches that transition from the heel flap to the gusset. In the color image below, I’m talking about the number of yellow gusset stitches you have along the red heel flap, not the yellow stitches along the purple heel turn. This is the number of stitches you would pick up after knitting the heel flap and heel turn for cuff-down socks.

For example, let’s say your sock has 60 stitches around, 30 for the instep and 30 for the sole. If you have an average instep, then the number of stitches you’ll have at the gusset/heel flap transition is 15, in other words (60 ÷ 4). If you have a flat instep like me, I only have 14 stitches. For Ryan, who has a high instep, he has 16 stitches, though I think he could go up to 17 stitches easily.

Whatever your overall sock stitch count, divide that by 4, and you’ll have the “average” number of stitches you’ll need to pick after completing your heel flap. For a smaller foot that’s 56 stitches around, an average instep will need 14 stitches (56 ÷ 4 = 14). For larger feet with 64 stitches around, an average instep will need 16 stitches (64 ÷ 4 = 16). Then you can adjust up and down by a stitch depending on the shape of the foot. Flat feet will need less room and high arches will need more.

I will include each of the three instep sizes in my instructions for how to knit the french/round heel cuff-down. For reference, I use the magic loop method for knitting.