Finished stranded socks and LYS

I finished the stranded knitted socks. I tried a few new things with them. First of all, I tried a short rowed garter stitched heel. The heel was really fast to knit, but I'm not sure if it added much in the way of bulk. I wanted to make the heel a bit bulkier in hopes that it will extend the life of the socks. I knit the socks with Knitpicks Palette yarn. It's not your typical sock yarn, but it works wonderful for stranded or fair isle socks. I have two other pairs of socks made out of this yarn and those still look great. I also tried the pinstriped star toe. The toe feels very snug. I'm not sure if that's due to the pinstriping or my tension or both. I did try the pinstriped heel flap, but it was turning out too tight and didn't have any stretch at all. I frogged that and went with the garter heel. My stranding is out of practice. The first sock is a bit looser than the second. The second sock is much more even and better fitting.

Details:
Pattern: Blocks(pg. 104) six-stitch stranded pattern from More Sensational Knitted Socks
Yarn: Knitpicks Palette
Needles: two 16 inch size 0 Addi Turbos
Started: April 7, 2007
Finished: April 13, 2007

I used the Addi needles because my Knitpicks Classic Circulars were taken up in the Regia Surf socks. I missed the pointy tips, but the Addi needles were probably better for the loosely twisted Palette yarn. I didn't have any problems with splitting the yarn while knitting with the Addi needles. I had a lot of fun doing the stranded knitting. I plan on making a few more out of that same book and with more Palette yarn that I have in my stash.

I found out that I do have a LYS (local yarn store). The name of the store is Market Street Yarn and Crafts. I heard about it on the knitting livejournal, but never got around to visiting it. We were in town and decided to check it out. Wow!!!! I was very impressed. The two ladies there were very nice. They asked how I heard about the store, what type of knitting I did, etc. The front of the store had comfy couches and chairs and toys. E and D busied themselves there while I looked around. Dwight was there to watch them, but they did behave very well. I got to see some pricey yarns up close(didn't buy any). The store had a very nice selection of yarns. I ended up buying some Lorna's Laces and Wildefoot sock yarn. They had a good variety of sock yarns. I'll have to check out some of the other ones, if I ever get my stash down to a reasonable size. I liked the store a lot. The ladies answered many of E's questions and were very kid friendly. They even mentioned having kid classes this summer.

Back to knitting projects, I've started another shawl. I'm knitting the Luna Moth Shawl out of some Cherry Tree Hill Cascade silk that I've had for a while. It's a top down shawl and it seems to be flying right now. I'm sure it will slow down once I get a few pattern repeats into it. I tried taking pictures of it, but they didn't turn out so well. I try to with natural light to get more accurate colors.