I never wear my watch when I’m at home. But there are a couple of audible clues as to the time. My computer speaks the time at the hour and ½ hour: The time is now two thirty p m. It speaks only from 6:00 AM to 11:00 PM.

And I have a mantel clock. It used to be in my mother’s house, but since she passed away it has lived with me, faithfully chiming the hour and ½ hour in a sonorous voice that makes it sound much bigger than it really is. Visible from the living room, kitchen and family room, it’s always the clock I look at when I need to know the time. If I was in a different part of the house, I listened for its ringing. Day or night, it could be counted on to, well… count.

Last week the mantel clock did not chime. Its hands are stopped at 8:35. At first I thought we might have had a power outage that made it lag behind (it’s an electric clock). But, no, it’s really stopped and chimes no more.

And this is the excuse I use for why I was up at 2:00 AM this morning, turning the heels on socks.

Yes, I realize that the fact that I was watching TV, and even changed channels several times, should have been a cue that it was getting late.

8:35 the clock said, as The Apprentice ended. 8:35, the clock said, when I glanced at it as the 11:00 news came on. 8:35 the clock said, when I finished turning the first heel and started on the second. 8:35 the clock said, when I realized I’d seen this Conan before, and switched over to American Hot Rod. 8:35 the clock said as I finished up the second heel flap.

8:35… Oh, my, it’s after 2:00 AM! Oops!

Yes, yes, I do tend to watch some inane TV when focused on knitting. I admit it. But there was nobody home but me and the cats and nothing else that needed doing. And I wanted those heels turned!

And turned they are!

To all of you who think that I’m completely daft because this is a perfectly “normal” heel: It’s not a new heel, but it’s new to me.

I do like the way that it looks, too. All of the increases are hidden along the first heel stitch row, so there’s no short-row line. And you can see that it fits well, too. It’s just slightly long on my foot, so I think it should fit my sock pal well. The cables pull the fabric in, but not too tightly. So, again, it should fit well.

You might notice that the Addi Natura I was using after breaking one of my ebonies has been replaced by an Addi Turbo. It appears that Addi and Suzanne are the only ones that make 3mm needles. It’s hard to tell from this picture, but the Addi’s are only about 3¼” long. The Suzanne’s are more than 5″. That’s just a little too long to be effective for sock knitting. As much as I love these needles, I will be knitting other things with them from now on.

Here us my heel recipe, if another toe-up person other than me has not tried this heel and wants to:
64 stitches total around sock, 32 stitches on sole needle, 30 of those involved in the heel.
9 st increased on each side for the gussets.
The heel was worked over the center 16 stitches. On each row, I slipped the first stitch, worked one less stitch than the prior row, and did an M 1 increase at the end. The last row I worked had 3 stitches plus the slipped stitch. This increased the heel flap stitches from 16 to 31. From the last M1, I knit across to the first gusset stitch and did a SSK to meld heel flap to the gusset on the knit side. Then I turned and purled across the heel flap row and did a P2Tog to meld the heel flap to the gusset on the purl side. I switched to Heel Stitch and worked back and forth until I had picked up 16 gusset stitches (the 9 increases plus 7 sole stitches) on each side. That left 33 stitches on the sole needle. So the next time around, I decreased by doing a P2Tog right in the middle, hidden in the purls between the cables.

I like the way this looks and fits, and I will definitely use this heel again.

I will try not to turn it at 2:00 AM. But no promises. I need to get my mantel clock fixed!