I want to show off the design possibilities for self-striping yarn and my favorite afterthought heel. However, to keep the length of the foot easily customizable, the sock needs to be made out of order and from the top down. The “afterthought” heel is made after the leg and before the foot. So, an unusually-shaped sock, worked in the most common top-down order of things.

Along the front of the sock, the stripes should be all the
same depth, with just a little extra work from you when
joining new yarn for the foot. An extra-deep stripe forms under the heel. It looks like a fork in the road to me.

If you think you don’t like the fit of afterthought heels, I
hope you’ll try this wonderful version. It is automatically
customized to fit the wearer, and I have never known
anyone who tried it who didn’t fall in love. In my book,
Sock Architecture, I call it the thumb-joint hat top heel. To make it fit perfectly, you will have to measure the feet and part of the thumb of the wearer, which should confuse them greatly. It’s always fun to scare the muggles, isn’t it?