Egeolaneaphobia and COYPS

Back when I was photographing my stash for Ravelry, I've discovered that I have a problem. I seem to buy more yarn than I need. The patterns all tell me how much yarn I will need, but I still buy too much. Some yarns I bought thinking I could knit something for Haley, too. But seriously, who wants to make two projects with the same yarn. Boring. Of course I was still a little new to the craft then. Others I bought online and was afraid that if I did run out and wouldn't be able to get the same dye lot; so I bought too much. I even have two balls of TuFuties for one pair of socks, those balls are designed to be enough for a pair of socks. The good news is that I haven't been knitting long enough have way too much yarn hanging around my house. My intervention was when the LYS owner was trying to talk me out of buying too much yarn for a project. The LYS owner!!!

I don't know what my problem is called, so I made up a name for it. It's a phobia that causes me to have a condition as a side effect. Think of it as a person with Agoraphobia (fear of public or open spaces) has a drink to relieve their anxiety and turns into an Alcoholic.

I have Egeolaneaphobia. The fear of needing more wool. So, to relieve my anxiety I buy too much, which is turning into COYPS- Compulsive Over Yardage Purchasing Syndrome.

A person with Egeolaneaphobia is obsessed with the thought that they can't make it through a project without running out of yarn. Then they would have to use a different dye lot, the yarn could be sold out/discontinued, or any other number of mishaps. Scary. To make themselves feel better, the person buys too much yarn.

COYPS develops with the symptoms of delusion, denial, and a smaller pocketbook. They believe that they could make something else out of the left over yarn, give it away as a gift or contest prize, or worst, that they might actually use all of it. They often try to hide their yarn purchases, using cash or storing the stash in the garage or other spot the spouse will never look. In advanced cases, the person becomes paranoid and distrust online buying or that you only need 480 yards like the pattern says. It could result in a panic attack at their LYS.

Primary treatment is patient education and behavior therapy. They need to learn that the designer of the pattern knew what they were doing when the say "takes 2 skeins." Also, that this usually allows for there to be left over yarn. It is often helpful for there to be a sponsor to supervise that purchases are pattern appropriate. Once treatment is going well, subjects are encourage to buy too little yarn so that they can learn that it is okay to run out. You can always get more yarn. In very few cases is medication needed, despite what my husband says.

And with all that being said, I just ran out of Frog Tree Sport Alpaca half way through the second mitten. Now I have to wait for my LYS to open again January 2nd. Sucks.