Ok...well it turned out the good yarn I found online
wasn't available in the store after all. So I went to another store. And they didn't have it either. I thought I had seen it there before. I guess it was the same brand, but not the same type. I went ahead and bought some "denim style" yarn (can't remember the brand right now, since I don't have it in front of me), thinking maybe it would work. I knitted a swatch, and the gauge isn't quite right, and it doesn't have as much stitch definition as I'd like for this project. So now I have four skeins of yarn with no idea for how to use them...and I think I'll go ahead and order the yarn I liked...online.
Go figure.