Best laid plans... meh

I'm something of a lemming, when it comes to knitting. I won't tell you how many Jared Flood Noro scarves I've made, although in my defense, if it's good enough for the Yarn Harlot, it's good enough for me. Still, if I had a third foot, I'd kick myself in the butt right now. Not only have I committed to Ravelympics (socks), but also to the Harlot's knitting Olympics (Jared Flood's Tweed Baby Blanket). These two people are dangerous, I tell you, and a bad influence! I have sixteen days to knit a complicated pair of socks and a fancy baby blanket, and oh yeah, clean the litter box and walk the dog, drive DD hither and yon, cook and clean, and attend to personal hygiene requirements.

My initial Ravelympics plan was an original sock design. I tend to wing it when it comes to designing my own stuff, since most of the time I know it will only be for personal consumption and not repeated. I had big plans for this sock, however. This pair would make me famous. Ha! Here's where parameters smacked me back to reality. I didn't have the right yarn for the job, which is a little like trying to change a tire with a screwdriver. I have lots of yarn, but nothing that will get the job done. Everything in my stash is just too dark. This sock needs lightness to show off the stitch pattern, or it just won't work.

Being the resourceful former Girl Scout that I am, I came up with a radical plan--pick a design that will work with the yarn I already have. I know this sounds like crazy talk, but I live on the edge people, so follow me off this cliff if you dare. Take a long, hard look at your stash, and if the color palate looks like a black cat hiding in a dark room, maybe you need to branch out just a bit. In the meantime, work with what you've got. My Super Secret Ravelympics Socks are on hold until I get over my stash enhancement guilt and get into some lighter colorways. You haven't heard the last of this project, however.

One of the Ravelympics rules is to stretch yourself, so I've settled on the Arch-Shaped Sock pattern. I downloaded the pattern ages ago, but was a bit intimidated by its weird architecture, which makes it a good choice. I'm using some Blue Moon yarn (a requirement for Ravelympics Team Blue Moon) that will work with this pattern. I'm hoping to slam it out in less than four days, so I can move on to the Tweed Baby Blanket. Here's my progress so far:

This might not exactly be swifter, higher or stronger, but if I get these and the blanket finished in time, it will be an Olympian feat. More to come.