How’s your sock looking? Pretty tubular?  Now, you could just make a big tube and close it up at one end and say “Hey, It’s a sock!”  But I think foot-shaped socks are much better than tube-shaped socks.  They are more comfortable and more interesting to knit.

Here’s what you should have so far (I’ve numbered the needles for ease of discussion later):

Needles 1 and 4 are the back of the leg/heel/sole of the foot.  Needles 2 and 3 are the shin and the top of the foot.  The end of the row is between needles 1 and 4.

Set aside your fifth needle for now (don’t loose it, we’ll need it later).  Using needle 4, place a marker, and knit across needle 1.  You’ll have half your stitches on one needle, which you’ll work back and forth to create your heel flap.  It will look like this:

Using just this needle, work the heel flap back and forth, following the following rules:

1. Work the heel flap back and forth, not in the round.  Do not knit any of the stitches on needles 2 or 3.
2. Since we’re doing stockinet stitch back and forth, make sure to knit one row and purl one row.
3. Every time you start a new row, slip the first stitch.  This makes a nice edge that will make it easier for us to pick up stitches later on.
4. Your heel flap is done when you’ve worked rows equal to half your Sock Number. (My sock number is 60, so I’ll work 30 rows for my heel flap).

When you’re done, work back to the beginning of the round (in the middle of the row/where you put the stitch marker).  It should look like this:

Wednesday, we’ll turn the heel!