Finishing Projects and that Constant...Nagging...Temptation

I have yet to meet a knitter who has less than 5 projects going at the same time, except for maybe extreme beginners. I suppose there are those out there who can pick up and project and go from start to finish without working on something else but HOW?! Usually when I start something new (and what I think is the most fabulous thing I'm going to find at the moment), I SWEAR to myself that I will not start anything else until this one is done. But, inevitably, that never happens. As one of my bosses Cheryl has put it, some projects just "lose their energy" and need to be put down for a little while. So, I've been using that excuse lately when I gleefully start a new project and Adam, my boyfriend, asks "weren't you working on something else?" Ok, so some things lose their energy i.e. I get frustrated or I find something more fun...but will they ever get their energy back? Sitting in my projects-in-progress basket is the Cathode sweater from Knitty, which is startingly close to completion, but I just won't pick it up for some reason. And something went terribly wrong with that Clementine Shawlette and I had to frog a few rows and now I don't even want to look at it. And my mom's bolero, I figure, I have until Mother's Day to finish, so why not start that Tea Rose Halter? It's what I've really wanting to be working on anyway. But now I'm sitting in the yarn shop and finding my hand straying to all of our new books and patterns. "OOHH that would be so great in the Silkience" or "I want to make something with that bamboo". The temptation is incredible. I guess it's worse for me than for some since I actually WORK here. But everyday someone wanders into the shop and "accidentally" buys something that catches their eye.

We all like to joke that knitting and yarn buying is an addiction, but I really think it is. Sure we're not shooting heroin into our arms but it still takes up a considerable portion of my time and money. I'll be sitting in class and literally fidgeting in my seat because I'm anxious to pick up the needles. And if I would try to "quit" I would definitely have withdrawal. I've heard of a few people who gave up buying yarn or knitting for Lent. That just shows you how painful it would be for some people. And non-knitters just don't get it.