Needlepoint on a small island

So I committed to making a needlepoint stocking, in concept similar to the one at left -- my mom designed and made three: one for my brother, one for my daughter, and one for my sister. When we cleaned out her house, we probably threw away several hundred dollars worth of needlepoint (and other craft supplies). How I wish now I hadn't agreed to that action!

I believed that our local Ben Franklin would stock needlepoint stuff -- blank canvas, yarn, spare needles... Nope, none of it. Wal-Mart either. According to the internet, the closest needlepoint stores to me are out on the west side, an hour drive each way, if they're really there. Next time I have an errand out that way, I'll try to hunt them down. My concern is that they're geared more toward the vacationing needlepointers, rather than a transplant taking up a 30-year old abandoned hobby. But even vacationing needlepointers need to pick up a skein of Christmas green to finish a project, don't they?

Thank heavens for eBay! I've bought quite a bit of yarn and a bit of canvas from various sources already, but the lack of ability to stand and, for example, compare various shades of reds prior to purchase is a bit frustrating.

I narrowed down the colors to be used from the original 54 to 40-ish, so that's some sort of progress I guess. Now off to see how many of the skeins purchased sight-unseen fall into any of the categories I can use...