Yarn-O-Mania Sets In

To my dismay, I am discovering in myself a new variation on excessive yarn consumption.  I've always been susceptible to that not-to-be-left skein of yarn, even to the point of browsing through pattern books at the yarn shop to find a project to justify the purchase.  

I'm now finding, however, that my obsessive compulsive tendencies are yielding new and disturbing fruit.  See if you recognize this scene:

I purchase yarn A and happily cue it up with a corresponding pattern, sought out just to show it in all its glory. Then, a few weeks or months later, I find the PERFECT yarn for the project I decided to undertake merely to justify the purchase of yarn A.  I now purchase yarn B, enthralled by its possibilities.  

Now, my OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder) takes over.  I begin to worry about the abandoned yarn A.  What will I make with it?  What is its purpose?  I turn to the net - ravelry, knitty, whatever - in search of the perfect pattern.  While browsing, I find THAT SHAWL, the PERFECT shawl (which I somehow seem to find at a rate of about once or twice a week), but, alas, it does not suit poor yarn A.  However, yarn C, located online in one of those outlets of superlative yarn beauty - little knits, colorsong, loopy ewe - has the perfect yarn.  I can feel it already and visualize it made up into THAT SHAWL. I immediately decide to purchase it.  However, in my browsing, I have discovered another gorgeous yarn.  The color is unparalleled, its shimmer is mesmerizing.  If I add it to the order, the postage will be the same. I add it and save on postage.  Oh no, what will I do with this new yarn, poor yarn D (not to mention now forgotten yarn A)?  I am lost!

The symptoms?  Large numbers of soft, squishy packages arriving at your doorstep, brightening your day with their color and texture; a surprising list of credit card charges; a LONG list of queued projects on ravelry, while the stash list, though still impressive, lags behind.

All jokes aside, I have discovered a partial cure for this insidious disease.  I pull photos of yarn down onto my desktop.  I look at them for days.  Is this the perfect color?  Or perhaps this?  Or I could instead make this shawl?  Or that?  After a few days of obsession, I find that a flush of sanity comes over me; I decide I have no need for this new siren of a yarn.  I return to contemplating my already impressive queue of projects, and my incipient crisis is averted - until next time.