I Have a Problem.

I can't stop buying yarn. Seriously. I'm out of control. I have a KnitPicks order on the way, and I can't even hold off until it gets here before I buy more.

Last night, Paul had places to go and things to do, so we met up at Arby's after work to grab a quick dinner. Since I had a 40% off coupon from Hobby Lobby, I thought I'd stop by on my way home to see if I could pick up a cute little needle set for my mom, who's been working with any old needles she could find. I found some needles, all right. I also found a bunch of yellow clearance tags. And yellow clearance tags are my downfall. They had Baby Boucle on sale this week, but I found one skein of pink that was on clearance. So I got the pink and one skein of white -- which I thought would make at least one cute baby sweater. Probably two. Then I was walking down the aisle and caught a glimpse of yellow clearance tags on a bunch of fuchsia WoolEase. I've never actually bought WoolEase before -- and I hear it has pilling issues. But I didn't care. I could buy enough for a whole sweater (or even two sweaters for my niece) for $7. I tried SO HARD to walk away, but I couldn't.

Actually, despite the fact that I'm ashamed of myself for buying more yarn that I really don't need, I'm also a little bit proud of myself. I got needles for Mom (8s through 10.5s) and yarn for two baby sweaters and a me sweater for $20. That ain't bad at all. And it was all pink -- except for the one ball of white. I'm all about Project Spectrum.

So after buying all that yarn, I went right home to hide it. It's a little bit like how my brother used to hide behind the living room chair when he wet his pants (when he was little -- not recently, as far as I know). He knew it was wrong, but there was just no stopping it. I guess he figured that if no one saw him do it, it didn't really happen. I'm the same way. I figure if I go running home and put everything in its place, my impulse yarn purchases didn't really happen. See? They look like they were there all along! And as I put them away, I will go over all the reasons why it was okay to buy them. They're for other people's babies. That makes it good. The yarn for me was so cheap! And I deserved to buy something nice for myself after I passed up the 99c dishcloth cotton, which I actually had in my hands, and which I put back because I already have a ton of and didn't need to buy more...

Then I called my mom to confess. That always makes me feel better -- because she just laughs and helps me come up with more reasons why it was okay.

Speaking of Mom, when I talked to her last night, she proudly announced that she's nearly finished with her THIRD scarf! She just started knitting three weeks ago! Add that to the number of scarves that I've made for her over the years that I've been knitting, and it's quite clear that Mom's neck will never go cold.

But I am so proud of my little mom. I can't wait for her to visit again. We're totally going on a yarn shop crawl. And then we can both buy yarn we don't need.