Why oh why oh why?

Why is it that the moment you find a great local yarn store (LYS) that it disappears?

I wandered over to Handknits in Englewood NJ yesterday after finding out they carried Zelda bags...was wanting to indulge in some instant gratification (based in some necessity, yea yea that's the ticket) for a knitting bag and, after much googling, determined that the Zelda bags were the type I wanted... This is a great store, great people, great sales and selection...AND THEY'E MOVING TO VERMONT IN A MONTH.

Arg.

It's less than 3 miles from me...and it's leaving.

Bah. Humbug.

I did score a Zelda...ended up with the Tote, which is one of the medium-sized bags as the Grand's straps just weren't comfy and I worried I'd outgrow it too fast and you don't want to outgrow the usefulness of a not-inexpensive bag anytime soon. Plus didn't like any of the colors/fabrics on the regular and Grand bags they had (that was, however, quite secondary). The instant gratification thing was (yea yea!) related to having a $50 Amex gift cheque from work for Staff Appreciation Day (nice nice gift!) and thus allowed me to better justify the high-end bag. I ended up with a teal speckle bag with plum vintage velvet contrast, and I lurves it...

Also scored some sale yarn...they were clearing Rowan Cotton Tape for 60% off (got it in a mauvey-lavender) making it just over $3/skein (yay!) and some Southwest Trading Phoenix in Parrot colorway (a yummy 100% soy silk tape yarn) for about 20% off.

Amazon order also came in with the copy of "Big Girl Knits" by Jillian Moreno and Amy R. Singer that I ordered. THIS IS A FABULOUS BOOK! I haven't knit up any of the patterns yet (well, obviously) but there are so many designs I want to make, the text is humorous, the information very very needed for the knitting/fit needs of plus-sized women, nothing boring/old/staid, lulcious yarn recommendations, variety of difficulty, recommendations for size selection (such as about how much ease to factor in when selection which size to make), etc. If you're over a size 14 and have been frustrated by the lack of patterns available, tired of doing a ton of math to try to scale patterns up and/or have been bored with the overly-conservative/boring "designs" (aka bulky, tent-like) out there, this is the book for you.