How do you choose your yarn?

This question was posed on a forum I frequent and I was pleased with my answer, so I figured I'd post it here, lest I forget. Maybe I need to subject myself to more literature to grow my vocabulary. Hee hee. I just finished watching "Stranger than Fiction". Amazing what some movies can do to stir up things...

Anyway, here's what I posted:

I go with a project in mind, but then I see some yarn that catches my eye, the feel of the yarn is just too irresistible to pass by. Then, sometimes, I'll pick up the yarn and wonder what I can make with it, the previous project pushed aside in my mind. I'll leaf through the pattern books, wanting to buy them, but knowing that I only have X dollars to spend and I want to spend every penny on that irresistable yarn that I simply cannot pass up.

I'll either give in to my desire and pick up that yarn, which usually means I don't pick up enough for a project, so it sits in the drawer, to be pet occasionally, and I dream of what I can make, or I will, against every fiber of my being, slowly put that delicious yarn back, take a deep breath, look longingly at the skeins that I must pass up, turn around slowly and with a heaviness in my step I will get the yarn I came to get. But as I put each skein in the basket, my heart lightens. I remember that this yarn I came for, I chose with a purpose. I love this yarn, too. The colors are perfect for my friend who needs a yarn/blanket hug that I cannot give in person. The colors are the absolute best colors for her, I just know that when she sees this finished project, she will feel the love and the hugs I have put into it. And all is well again. As I turn and walk past the yarn I got distracted by, I reach my hand out for one last squeeze, one last lingering touch and tell those skeins that the next time I come, I will pick them up, and I will have enough money to buy plenty of skeins for another lovingly crocheted piece, to either sit on my bed or be mailed off to another friend who is in need of a fibrous hug, a long distance prayer.