Blessing or Curse?

So Sock Summit is coming in August and for the first time ever Stick Chick Knits will have a booth! More precisely, my friend is getting a booth and sharing some space and cost with me. But hey, I'll be out there on the floor selling my own patterns.

In light of this the majority of my design time the last couple months has been spent on socks. Right now my pattern line up has things made from sock yarn, but only one pair of socks (and those are free). I've been fiendishly working on socks around the clock and have various patterns in various states of completion. My goal is to have at least 4 sock patterns for sale in time for the show.

Imagine my surprise when wandering around Ravelry, poking around in my friend's activity section, I see a pair of my socks, completed. Only, they didn't have my title and they weren't mine. Yep, someone designed the exact same socks I did (same ribbing, same st count, same gauge, same st pattern, also a heel flap/gusset, though without the eye of partridge mine has). I know there is nothing new under the sun, but it's a bit eerie when you see something this identical pop up.

If Rav didn't exist, I wouldn't have know these existed (they were published for free at an online UK site I'd never heard of). I would have published them (for pay funny enough) and gone about my way. But, thanks to the blessing/curse of Rav, I now know they exist and mine will be scrapped. Back to the drawing board for at least one sock.

Ugh. As if trying to buy a house and wrangle a monkey don't keep me busy enough. Is it time for Tahoe yet?