Wrap and Turn Knitting With Short Rows

Short rows are partial rows, rows where only some of the stitches are knit, and the piece is turned mid-row and worked back in the other direction. Short rows allow you to add length or width to just one part of your knitting, shaping it to create darts or gussets in garments, the turn of a heel in socks. Knitting instructions sometimes will tell you to "wrap and turn" in the middle of a row when you are knitting short rows. Correctly done, the wrap and turn prevents a hole from appearing at the points where you turned the piece to work in the other direction. 

The methods below describe working wrap and turn short rows on both the knit and purl sides of the fabric. Sock heels are usually in stockinette stitch, so you need to know how to handle both situations. The overall concept is always the same—work to the stitch to be wrapped, wrap the stitch, go back the other way—but the specifics of getting the wrap around the stitch are slightly different, as is working the wrap and the stitch together on a subsequent row.

Ready to try your hand at wrapping and turning in a basic sock pattern? While most sock patterns do not explicitly call for wrapping and turning on their short row heels, all you have to do is read "wrap and turn" where the instructions say "turn." Make your heel turn sleeker with just a little wrap and turn.