When good yarns go bad

Finally some knitting to be shown. I have started on Starsky, it's going great guns (Starsky, guns, get it bwahaha I crack myself up). I was going to take the lovely Donni up on her offer of employing the services of her yarn pimp to get the illusive Knit Picks as required by the pattern, but I was itching to start (more about the itching later) (don't worry it's not as gross as it sounds) so I popped into my lovely LYS and picked up some Cleckheaton Merino Supreme (which, by the way may be my new fave. It is SERIOUSLY soft) (maybe I should have used that to stop the itching...). And at a great price of $5.50 a ball you can't go wrong. But not before stopping by in Lincraft to check what they had in. After coughing up a faux fur/glimmer/glitter/whatever latest fuzzy novelty yarn they had in store fur ball while passing by the ROWS AND ROWS of this stuff they have (one day they will realise that we are not all 12 and wish to use REAL WOOL!) I found a few semi normal yarns, lots of Katia (which I really quite like, especially great for kiddies knits as they don't pill and wash easy!) and some Cleckheaton Merino Supreme, but not many balls of that to be of any use to me.
So here's a pic of it visiting my HUMOUNGOUS basil plants (I have never been able to successfully grow basil anywhere but it is coming out of my ears at this house. Must be all the neglect.) It is much darker than the photo shows, more of a chocolate brown, not this wishy washy brown.



I must have been having some sort of fit today because I actually felt like finishing something. As in blocking it. As in SEAMING it (albeit a seam that is shorter than a dpn but still it is something like seventh hell to me). That 'it' that I felt like finishing is none other than (trumpet please in Closing Ceremony fashion) BACKYARD LEAVES!! Yes my Olympic/Paralympic/'could have been a Commonwealth Games knit if I had been organised enough' knit is finally done. I steamed blocked, I pulled out my needle, sewed that puppy up and whipped around my neck with a flourish...

... and promptly whipped it off and threw it to the ground with a look of disgust on my face.

IT ITCHES. BIG SCRATCHY ITCHY ITCHING.

How does this damn thing itch? I tried the yarn when I bought it, put it up to my face, felt it with my hands, over and over and over so much so that I was getting funny looks from the LYS owner like I had some kind of yarn fetish (but I did stop short of sniffing it) (oh who am I kidding I probably did that too) (and hey what is it with my overuse of brackets today?) (and... nah just kidding). I am so sad, I was really looking forward to popping it on when the days get cold (whenever that will be, being that it is about 30C here today. It's autumn is it? Could've fooled me), swaning about town looking fab. Now it will be relegated to only being worn over things that totally cover my neck.. kinda defeats the purpose. You'll get some photos when it is cold enough for me to don thick enough clothes so I can't feel the itching.

Hmphf. I'm off to watch some trashy TV in the form of America's Next Top Model (I'm sorry I cannot get enough of this crazy trash. And project Runway too, the tears! The tantrums!) and knit my Starsky (which I suspect is gonna be a bit too small... I now have a record of when I should have come to my senses so when I have almost finished it and it IS too small I can come back to this post and sob) (and I just had to put one more lot of brackets in! It's all gone to crazy land here!)