If you’re not familiar with this little whirlwind of a trickster, Wikipedia is a good jumping off point to all the books, translations and movie adaptations (and there are a lot!). They may be children’s books, but folks of all ages love the super-strong little girl with sticking-out pigtails.

And of course, she never matched her knee socks. Not in the movies,

From Pippi Longstocking, 1969. You can get the look with a pair of solid red and solid green knee highs, like the Opaque Nylon Trouser Socks in Olive and in Rust.

Or even the cartoon!

From Pippi Longstocking, 1997. You can get the look with a pair of orange and yellow stripes and solid purple over the knees like the Extraordinary Stripes in Ochre & Spice and the Extraordinaries in Plum.

Some of you might be hearing (well, reading) “Pippi” and thinking of a particular kind of sock. Not one worn in one of the dozens of incarnations of the famous character, but a sock named after her. One of the styles lost along with the Original Bootsocks when EG Smith’s machines died were the 28 and 42 inch Pippy Longstocklings.

From the Sock Journal, October 2004.

Thick and scrunchy, pretty much super (and super-duper) long bootsocks, the Pippy Longstocklings were wildly popular and we often had trouble keeping them in stock even before the bootsock troubles.

Though EG Smith has brought back their Bootsocks, we don’t expect them to bring back the Pippy. But that’s okay, because Schoolgirl Long Socks and the Schoolgirl Extra Long socks are pretty much as fabulous.

Most recently linked to in March 2012, when we were talking about what a scrunchy sock is.

The Schoolgirl Long Socks are 30 inches long and the Schoolgirl Extra Long socks are 40, making them roughly the same lengths as the old Pippy styles. The knit pattern is practically the same, the only real difference is the fiber content. The Pippy Longstocklings were 99% cotton and 1% spandex and the Schoolgirl socks are 50% cotton, 20% acrylic, 18% polyester, 10% nylon, 2% spandex.

Hmm, if grown-up Pippi were to wear the Schoolgirl Long Socks, what would she mismatch them with?