Magazines, books, patterns,...

While many people on my groups are bemoaning the lack of crochet books in their LYS & craft stores, I found an abundance when I looked today.
First, I was at Hancock Fabric. A fabric store, big on quilting projects, but they carry only Lion Brand yarn. They had a large supply of crochet & knit booklets, and a variety of Lion products, including knitting needles, crochet hooks, Tunisian hooks (okay only 2 sizes), kitchen cotton, sport & worsted weight, bulky,...I enjoyed browsing the Homespun colors and dreaming. Homespun has a pretty purple, called Grape, that might be a future "It's all about the Purple". But not what I was looking for today.
Then went to A.C. Moore. In the yarn section they had a great supply of crochet booklets, as usual. They also had self-published patterns by the Stitch Diva, several that I've seen on the website. It was fun coming across them in a store! There were 3 current crochet magazines, Crochet!, Crochet Fantasy, and Hooked on Crochet. Then they had about a dozen books, including Donna Kooler's Encyclopedia of Crochet, Jan Eaton's Crochet Basics, 24-Hour Crochet Projects by Rita Weiss, Crochet School (author?). All of these I think I've reviewed on this site before. They also had The Little Box of Crocheted Hats and Scarves. Cute idea, a box of cards that each have one pattern. You can select a small card & stick it in your project bag & go.
A.C. Moore also has a great selection of projects displayed over the bins of yarn. Lots of scarves, purses and felted items, now. I'm always a little peeved that 99% of the designs are knitted. Once in a while there will be a crocheted scarf, or felted purse. But I think they need to do a better job of displaying crocheted items. Maybe they don't have an experienced crocheter to make up samples....hmmm
Today there was a knitted scarf in ChaCha, I have an "identical" scarf that I made in Tunisian crochet.
Yarns, too many to describe, just dream, plan, design... But, they also did not have the Red Heart color that I needed.
Michaels has a better selection of yarn and thread than they used to have, but not comparable with A.C. Moore. Surprise, they also didn't have the Red Heart amethyst. Hey, this isn't an oddball item, I usually find it everywhere. I probably could have tried Wal-Mart, but how many miles can you put on a van searching for one item? I decided to use Caron's Simply Soft in violet. The color is almost as bright, the yarn is softer, but more expensive. Also, when using the large Tunisian hooks, you can actually get yarn that is too soft! People who berate Tunisian as being tight & stiff wouldn't believe this, but it can be much softer than knitting or crocheting. I made some baby shawls in TLC Amore, in a pretty Tunisian shell. Beautiful, but so soft it's almost limp. I'll go back to the Lion Baby Soft and Bernat Softee Baby.