After a couple of false starts I've managed to complete the first eight inches, so here's a photo (with some accompanying material so you can see what I'm going for):
The yarn is mostly Plymouth Encore (75% acrylic, 25% wool), although for a couple of colors I went with good old Red Heart acrylic.
Incidentally, if my attempts to make these socks are actually successful I'll probably post some information on how I went about it in case anyone wants to replicate this odd little project. I'm relying on this website for scarf-based information (and I'm going with the original Season 12 version of the scarf for various reasons).