http://web.archive.org/web/200...christmasitems3.html

I have made it all the way to the end of the right heal. The part that says:
Next Row: From p side, sl 11 sts to free needle. On RS of work, with MC, k8 sts of right heel, with same needle pick up and k9 sts along inner edge of heel, k27 sts of inseam pick up and k9 sts along inner edge of left heel, k8 sts of left heel--61 sts.
I only have 8 sts, not 11 to slip, and feel like it wants me to work backwards. I am a beginer knitter, but so far this hasnt been a difficult pattern. Im sure im just missing something obvious. Let me know if im not making sense.

It seems like you turned the heel which for many is the hard part so you have made it past that.

What you are doing is picking up sts. on the heel gusset on each side of what would be the foot. You are getting the sts. you "set aside" while you worked the heel. Now you will knit around to the toe.

You may have dropped a sts or so or just knitted more together than needed and you now have 8.

Don't freak out!

You can make a few simple increases to get back to the amount of sts. needed. knit a row plain and place an increase and do an increase every other row if you like. In the bottom of the foot area.

As a beginner knitter there is a lot to learn and the biggest one is how to fix mistakes.

You are doing great!

Thank you for getting back to me
The pattern acctually says I should have 8 sts just before it says to slip 11 sts. That is only one thing that is confusing me.
It also says to Knit 8 then pick up 9 stitches with the same needle, It seems to be wanting me to go in the wrong direction. I guess I dont know how to knit then pick up stitches only to pick up stitches then knit. Does that make any sense?

I think you're right and the pattern's wrong. Slip the 8 st of the right heel so you can attach the yarn and knit across them, then pick up 9 along the heel (to bring you up to the 27 saved stitches), k 27, pick up 9, and k 8. That's 61 st--forgot to check the pattern for this, is that what it called for?

Yep, just checked it and it says 61.

Just saw your reply to knitski--

You're starting at the edge when you knit those 8 stitches (the directions say to cut the yarn after you finish the right heel, and slip the stitches to a needle so you can begin at the edge and knit those 8 and continue with the rest of the row).

After you do those 8, you pick up stitches along the knitted edge that extends back from the heel to the instep (those 27 stitches you've been ignoring while you worked on the heel).

To pick up stitches where there aren't any, like along this edge, stick the needle through the the edge, wrap the yarn around it from below, and draw the yarn up to the top side. That forms your first stitch. Now do it 8 more times.:-)

If you're wondering where to pull the stitch through: notice there are "columns" of v's for the 8 stitches you've been working along the heel? One for each stitch, of course. You want to push the needle through between the last row of Vs and the one preceding it. Space the picked'up stitches fairly evenly so the ninth one is up where the stitch holder with the 27 stitches is.

After you do the 27 stitches from the holder, you pick up another 9 stitches working along the edge you made when you worked the 8 stitches of the *left* side of the heel.

Oh--just saw your other question: You don't have to go back and knit these picked-up stitches. By picking them up this way, they are considered knitted.

Ok that does help. Thank you.
I still have a problem that I really dont know how to explain really. But I could show you lol. The heel is in 2 parts with the 27 sts in the middle. Im am looking at it from the knit side, so the active stitches are on my left needle. Stiches are worked from right to left, but the pattern is asking me to pick up stitches from left to right.
If I were looking at the stocking from the p side, I could easily see how I can do this. as I would be picking up stitches in the correct direction.
grrr. Some days...

ok, I figured it out. I was just being stupid... lol. I was looking at it completely wrong. Thank you guys for all your help

Dear Audrey,

Welcome to this interesting forum. I am an ageing male from the UK with more than 50 years of knitting experience. Some of the people who read my posts I am sure groan!

But

With knitting patterns, you will find, you only get what you pay for, like many things in life. This is a free pattern. It has not suffered the test knitting and editing that you will get if you buy a pattern from a reputable company. Sadly there are a number of mistakes which an experienced knitter would just ignore, but you, as a new knitter may well have followed faithfully.

As an example, this is an obvious one I spotted:
Right Half of Heel, Row 1. The instruction "From p side . . etc, should come before the "Row 1," because when you repeat rows 1 & 2, you cannot keep slipping off 13 sts. Poor editing!

etc

To answer your question!

The last instruction of the previous section reads:
"8 sts rem. Cut yarn and slip sts to holder" and those vital 5 words are missed out in the matching half.

I hope this helps.

Best wishes, John

John, I know that many free patterns have mistakes, but so many published "you pay for these" patterns have glaring mistakes in them too and I have seen several with several in them. But then, that's why you push us to have the confidence to do our own designing isn't it?

I just had to do a pair of socks (to showcase at my local JoAnn's to entice people to take the knitting classes) and I found 3 or 4 mistakes, like two rows were omitted from the turned heel portion, the stitch count was off for picking up stitches on the heel flap, and for the toe decreases, there were too many stitches for the top half and not enough for the bottom half. Just imagine if someone had tried to make those socks from those directions and not known what was wrong. They would have thought it was something they were doing.

All I can say is when you feel comfortable and want to try designing or experimenting with your own ideas/design please do!

It will liberate you beyond belief. You will learn more about your knitting than you can imagine.

Pick something simple and strike out on your own!