Excitement, then disappointment...then hope?

I fell in love with this yarn from Steam Valley at a fiber show this past fall. It was at the very first booth I went to, and I spent a good chunk of money on it without caring that I might find other things later on I wished to buy. Now anyone who's attended a show knows you don't just go crazy buying the first thing you see. But this yarn refused to let me walk by. It's almost 500 yards of fingering weight superwash, and the photo does not do the colors justice.

I wanted to knit myself a pair of armwarmers from it. I found a pattern I liked with a chevron of ribbing down the arm. I swatched and my gauge matched PERFECTLY. Like, 7 1/4 sts/" on the button. Who gets that kind of accuracy -- or is it precision? No, I think it's accuracy -- on the first swatch with a different yarn and needle size than the pattern calls for? Call it serendipity, fortuitous, what-have-you. I was just thrilled for everything to be falling into place. Until I started knitting the project. The color repeats are much shorter than I thought, only about 4-6" which means they don't form stripes or even pools of color. They blend into a muddy palette that dulls the beauty of the skein of yarn. Very disappointing. I'd post a photo but I already unraveled it.

So, I still have the yarn begging to be knit, but no idea what to make it into. The color repeats just don't seem like it'll work for socks, yet that's what this yarn is intended for. I thought of something with short rows to keep the colors pooled, maybe entrelac, but they'd be really small squares. I might try the Swirl Shawl since I have the pattern, but don't know that I want to embark on a piecemeal project. Any suggestions or favorite patterns for this type of yarn?

Plus, and here's the craftastrophe part, I don't have a knitting project right now. I ordered yarn from Knitpicks to make a pair of hot pepper elf shoes but it hasn't shipped yet. This is not normal. I think all of us being snowed in has caused a wave of orders at KP that they can't keep up with. I need a portable pattern that I don't have to look at to work on in the carpool. I can't just let all that free time riding in the car to go to waste. I still like that armwarmer pattern, but don't have any appropriate yarn. I could dye some, but that won't help me NOW. I could knit them in white and dye them afterwards in a gradation or something. That's an idea...