Sock Heel Patterns Glossary

I’ve created this page to show all of the sock heel patterns I can find. It’s a page I can quickly use as a reference. If you have a heel you love leave a comment and a link and I’ll add it.

It started with a picture I saw on Pinterest:

Heel options. Ravelry: Taina's Kannanottoja Heel options. Ravelry: Taina’s Kannanottoja: French 1 Dutch 2 Taffy 3 Band 4 heel Shaped common heel 9 tip: French 5 Dutch 6 round 7 Reverse Dutch 8 other Afterthought sädekavenus 13 Heel edeellä 10 unnamed 11 Afterthought tape 12 short rows One wedge heel 14 hourglass 15 Sweet tomato 16

*Heel options. Ravelry: Taina’s Kannanottoja: Cuff: French 1 Dutch 2 Taffy 3 Band 4 heel Shaped common heel 9, Toe: French 5 Dutch 6 round 7 Reverse Dutch 8, Other: Afterthought sädekavenus 13 Heel edeellä 10 unnamed 11 Afterthought  12, Short Rows One wedge heel 14 hourglass 15 Sweet tomato 16

*I believe there are a couple of mistranslations in the sock key under the originally posted picture; 1. arm should be cuff, for cuff down, 2. tip should be toe, for toe up and 3. Taffy should be Welch. I’ve made the corrections. Notice that the author put the heel number AFTER the name.

The numbering in my list cannot be compared to the photo above since I’ve added more heels due to research. There are good pictures of various heels at KnittingGeek.com.

Cuff Down

  1. French (aka Round Heel) – tutorial at KnitPicks
  2. Dutch (aka Square Heel) – tutorial at KnitPicks
  3. *Taffy/Welsh – In Finnish, includes other heels. Translate in Google.
  4. Welsh Heel – In English
  5. Band (aka German Strap Heel)
  6. Handkerchief Heel (aka V Heel) –
  7. Gusset Heel – For Dummies
  8. Half Handkerchief
  9. Fish Lips Kiss Heels – by SoxTherapist
  10. Balbriggan – instructions at Liberty’s Yarn
  11. Double-stitch Short Row – Tess Knits
  12. Sherman Heel – Hipknitism
  13. Fleegle Heel Video Link
  14. Double Gusset Heel – Turtlegirl’s Bloggy Thing
  15. Strong Heel – Aaron Clark’s Easier socks with the Strong Heel developed by Gerdine Crawford-Strong, pdf
  16. OMG Heel – Megan Williams
  17. German Short Row aka Boomerang Heel – Suzanne Bryan

Toe Up

  1. French
  2. Dutch
  3. Round
  4. Reverse Dutch
  5. Heel Shaped common heel – part of the Vanilla Sock pattern
  6. Eye of Partridge – part of the Vanilla Sock pattern
  7. Gusset Heel – Toe Up – Maia Spins
  8. Turkish Heel – Crystal Socklet Heel – Lynn DT Hershberger aka ColorJoy
  9. Fish Lips Kiss Heels – by SoxTherapist
  10. Fleegle Heel – also a cuff down version, Fleegle Heel video link
  11. Seam Free Rounded Toe-up Sock – Lynn Ashton
  12. Sherman – Cabezalana
  13. Double Stitches Heel – No wrapping, Heidi Bears
  14. OMG Heel – Megan Williams
  15. Sling Heel – Staci Perry

 Afterthought Heels

  1. Afterthought Heels – for Dummies
  2. The Beehive’s Aladdin Heel – Scroll to the bottom of the page
  3. Afterthought Heel socks – La La’s Knits
  4. Fish Lips Kiss Heels – by SoxTherapist

Short Rows – Toe up or Toe down

  1. Short Row Heel 
  2. Roomier Short Row Heel
  3. Hourglass
  4. Cat’s Sweet Tomato Heel by Cat Borhdi – YouTube video
  5. Cat’s Padded Sweet Tomato Heel by Cat Borhdi – YouTube video
  6. Fleegle Heel
  7. Fish Lips Kiss Heels – by SoxTherapist

Heel up 

  1. Hat Heel Socks – by Kathleen Spurling – socks started from the heel and worked up to cuff and down to toe.

Heels by Number

A great chart which lists how to knit the follow heels following an easy math formula. The following heel types are listed:

  1. V heel
  2. Round heel
  3. Rounder heel
  4. Square heel
  5. Modified square heel
  6. Strap heel

Skewed Heel

  1. Skew Sock – Lana Holden

Sock Architecture

This book has many additional heels for both cuff down and toe up; Square Heels,

40 thoughts on “Sock Heel Patterns Glossary

      • I tried the OMG heel and found it didn’t fit my high insteps very well. Basically, one makes all the increases in the last couple of rounds before starting the heel turn, leaving the sock tube very narrow at the top of the instep. Currently, I’m very fond of the Fleegle heel. I’ve been diabetic T2 on insulin for over 25 yrs.

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  1. I don’t think this is quite right. #9 is definitely not Fish Lips Kiss Heel as it has a heel flap. Fish Lips Kiss looks more like #15…its a short row heel. Not sure about the rest.

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    • Hi Kathy, thanks for the input. I admit I’m a bit confused. The label for the heel photos is directly underneath the photo. At the beginning of my list is specifically says it cannot be compared to the above photo. I’ve broken my lists into toe up, cuff down, etc. My number 9 in the list is a link to the pattern for a Fish Lips Kiss Heel, not a label for the above picture. Hope this helps.

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  2. This is a great reference page! Thank you. When I first started knitting socks, I also knit up different heels (about 6) and toes. Your list, and showing them actually on a heel, is much better.

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  3. Wow! I hadn’t realised just how many options there are for heels!

    I’m wondering why you suggest that “Taft” should be “WelCh”…?

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