Found my Knitting Olympics project!

The Knitting Olympics is a semi-knitalong for knitters who feel particularly masochistic upo to a challenge. You pick a project that will be a challenge to finish in the 16 days of the Olympics. Cast on when the Olympic torch gets lit, bind off no later than when it's extinguished. You pick your own level of difficulty - anything from a scarf to a complicated lace sweater is fair game.

So I was contemplating how to do this on my limited college-student budget, then saw the Red Scarf Project for the Orphan Foundation of America. If the idea of the Knitting Olympics is to challenge yourself, I see no reason why the challenge can't be volume rather than complexity of the pattern? So if I try to make [some number between five and eight] scarves in 16 days, this seems doable, especially if I spice it up with cables or intarsia or some such.

So far, possible patterns are:

1) one garter stitch or double-crochet scarf on big needles/hook with the red chenille that I made Jenwa's bag out of. That stuff is annoying to work with and I'll be glad to see the last of it - also it looks pretty and expensive/luxurious which is always nice.
2) one vertical stripes scarf to use up some of the $1 boucle my mom got me from Target on a lark. God bless her, that stuff is also annoying to work with and I'll be glad to see the last of that, too
3) one of the "fizzy" scarves from Knitty, in 1x1 rib instead of stockinette because I hate the way that stuff curls. Also I can use the furry stuff Jenwa gave me, which feels vaguely auspicious.
4) one of the wavy-ribbing scarves from Knitty
5) self-striping yarn + black yarn, in some stitch I am not familiar with and would probably have to practice with first. (Swatching before the Olympics is fair - it's like training.)
6) another shortrows ribbing scarf, but in two colors and with bulky yarn (white lamb's wool + either the green stuff I made Emilio's hat out of, or double strand of green Wool-Ease, the stuff Jenwa's Knithulhu is made out of)
7) Irish Hiking Scarf. This, like #5, would require some "training", since it means learning (gulp) cables.

Looks like the number is going to be seven. Lucky number, IIRC. If I manage more, great. And if I'm pressed for time I can substitute a garter stitch scarf in some novelty yarn, as much as I hate the idea.

Yarn for these = stuff from my stash, or else frogged knitted articles from Goodwill/Salvation Army, and cheap-ish yarn like Wool-Ease - no offense to orphans, but if I'm going to spend tons of money on them, it would be better spent as a donation straight to the foundation than as high-quality yarn for a scarf. (The exception would be novelty yarn, which is invariable expensive but would only be a last resort - consider it an incentive to knit fast.)

Other stuff I'm going to need - a (clean!) wooden chopstick for a cable needle, and I'll need to find the decent-sized crochet hook instead of the huge one I made Jenwa's bag out of.

Training = Dulaan Project hats incorporating the weird stitch from #5, and cables. (Not in the same hat, that would be crazy.) More stash-busting and charityness, w00t.