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When I saw the colors of this sock set, I immediately knew that I needed to make gingerbread house socks. I knew I wanted the picture to be big, spanning both socks. I originally had no idea if this was something I could do. Could I make two halves of a house that meet up not only on the front of the socks, but also the back? Could I avoid pattern and color jogs at the same time? It took me a while of manipulating the pattern in my mind before I could figure out how to go about it, but luckily the answer to these questions was yes.

What came to life on the socks was a big, fanciful, gingerbread house that spans multiple seasons. I imagined drawing on the gingerbread house with different colors of icing: the red heart between the windows for Valentine’s, the giant flowering plants decorating the walls next to the double doors for spring/summer, a big walkway flanked by conical evergreen shrubs, and a gingerbread person wearing a scarf while snowflakes fall.

After completing my design, I realized that the style reminded me of a cross stitch sampler, thus the name Gingerbread Sampler Socks.

The length of these socks is adjustable. The idea is that you can stop the socks when you are happy with the length. You may wish to knit more rows on the leg to have fewer rows for the foot, or knit fewer rows on the leg to have more for the foot. The motifs at the end of the sock can be duplicated or eliminated to further adjust the length of the sock.

Sizes: S (M, L) to fit foot circumferences 7-8 (8-9, 9-10)” or about 18-20 (20-23, 23-25) cm

Yarn:

MC: 463 yds (423m) or about 100g of fingering weight yarn
CC: 5 10g miniskeins or leftovers of fingering weight yarn consisting of about 46 yds (42 m) per 10g mini. You can also choose to use one color throughout.

Needles: US size 1 / 2.25mm

Notions: Stitch markers, tapestry needle

Gauge: 36 stitches and 42 rows to 4” (10cm) worked in stranded colorwork