To inexperienced knitters the heel seems to present mountains of difficulty, but in reality the mountain is but a mole-hill after all. The following pattern is one of the best.
Divide your stitches. We will say you have 50 altogether, on three needles: take 12 on each side of the seam-stitch, and knit these 25 backwards and forwards in rows, not rounds (making the seam-stitch all the same); you must pearl backwards, so as to keep the knitting even. Continue until you have made a flap about three inches long, always slipping the first knitted stitch. Now knit, from the right-hand side, the 12 stitches; then the seam-stitch, which from this time forward you cease to make. Knit 4 stitches beyond it; knit 2 together; knit 1; turn, pearl until you get to 4 beyond the seam-stitch, pearl 2 together, pearl 1, turn. Knit until you come to the stitch in the previous row where you turned—you may know it easily by the little hole which was formed by the turning; you now knit 2 together and knit one more stitch, then turn. Pearl the next row, of course always pearling 2 together where the little hole has been left, and so on until you have gradually worked off the stitches. You then pick up the side-stitches of this flap and the heel is finished.
To Decrease for the Toe of a Sock or Stocking.
Put half your stitches on one needle, a quarter on the second, and a quarter on the third needle. Thus: suppose you have 60 stitches, you must have 30 on one side and 15 on the other two. The 30 must be the front or ribbed part, the two pins with 15 stitches on them ought to be the sole part. In doubling your knitting now, the front part ought to lie evenly on the sole of the foot. Begin to knit the 30 stitches; knit 27, slip 1, knit 1, pass the slipped stitch over, knit 1. Now begin the next pin; knit 1, knit 2 together. Continue plain knitting. Now begin the 3rd pin; knit 12, slip 1, knit 1, pass the slipped stitch over, knit 1. Now you begin again on the 30. Knit 1, knit 2 together. Continue plain. Do two rounds plain, and then decrease again in the same manner 4 stitches in every round, leaving always 2 stitches between the decreasing, remembering always to do two rounds of plain knitting between each decreasing round.
Repeat for two inches and cast off.
Some people only do one round between the decreasing: this plan makes the toe rounder and more puckered.
Decreasing for Instep.
On the right-hand side of the heel, just where the ribs leave off, you slip 1, knit 1; pass the slipped stitch over; continue plain knitting; and where the ribs begin again you knit 2 together. You must remember that on the right side of the heel you slip, and on the left that you knit 2 together.