Jan 29, 2022: The Fish Lips Kiss Heel has been on my list of things to knit for a long time. I am glad I am finally making one.

I am knitting a plain sock with a fish lips kiss heel and a wedge toe.

I had initially cast on 72 sts on US #1 needles and knit a bit thinking that the yarn was thinner than Patons Kroy Sock yarn. But I got 8.25 sts per inch on US #1 needles. So frogged and…

CO 64 sts using German Twisted Cast On on US #2 straight needles. Knit the body on US #1. 1x1 ribbing followed by stockinette. I don’t know if I knit this pair with a looser gauge than usual, but 60 sts would have worked better for my US size 8 foot.

Fish Lips Kiss Heel
I found this video by The Knit knits to be very useful. However, I did not knit the extra rows as shown in the video. I followed the FLK instructions as written in the pattern.

The FLK heel consists of 4 parts:
Build the 1st half of the heel.
Boomerang Rows.
Build the 2nd half of the heel.
Finishing the heel.

1. Building the heel - You work this heel on half the total number of sts. I divided 32 sts as 11 sts, pm, 10 sts, pm, 11 sts and followed instructions for building the 1st half of the heel. In this section you create Twin stitches on 10 of the 11 side sts. The last stitch of the 11 side sts is left as is (just a knit st and not a twin stitch) on each side.

2. On the Boomerang section you knit through the “Twin stitches” counting each twin st as one st, and create a twin st on that last side st that you left as knit in the previous section. You are still working on the heel sts only. After this section you will have two twin stitches on each side of your needle.

3. In this 3rd section, you knit the expanding part of the hourglass shape, creating twin sts again.

4. In the last section you complete the heel and knit around, knitting all remaining twin sts as you go.

Maintain good tension - not too loose but don’t yank the yarn too tight either. The tension in the TSK and TSP rows is the only tricky part of the heel. If too loose, you’ll get holes; if too tight, the fabric will pucker.

I did a regular wedge toe. Nancy Bush’s Folk Socks: The History and Techniques of Handknitted Footwear (Updated Edition) has a description of different styles of wedge toes.

YARN I normally love working with Regia 4ply for socks. However this colorway bled color so much that the entire sock became discolored after the first wash. Quite disappointed.

After knitting the sock I decided to reinforce the heel so it will wear better. Here is a Knitty Article on the subject. If I had thought about reinforcements before knitting the heel, I would have just knit the heel using the sock yarn together with the reinforcement yarn as in this video by Very Pink Knits.

I found this article by Kate Atherley about how to make long-lasting socks to be very informative as well.

Measurements after blocking:
Cuff to beginning of heel: 17.5cm
Back of the heel to the tip of the toe: 23.8cm
Ankle (diagonal): 11.6cm
Width-leg: 9.5cm
Width-ball of the foot: 9.4cm