iPod Stocking

There's just something about iPods that makes you want to cover them up. It's not because they're unattractive or because you wouldn't want to draw attention to them. From my perspective, it's because their exteriors are made of beautifuly shiny materials that I don't want to see scratched or damaged in my purse or laptop bag. My first iPod came with a case, but it seems that Apple has started to cheap out on this aspect of the device and now the only way to protect your Pod is to purchase something after market

Unfortunately, in spite of the fact that there are about a zillion different cases out there for the iPod, including iPod Socks, I just couldn't find anything I really liked for Orbit (this name may seems strange, but I've always tended to have names for my devices that come from astronomy and physics..."Orbit" derives from the fact that my iPod is a satellite of my laptop, Chaos) -- and besides, what self-respecting knitter would let some impersonal factory knitting machine make socks for her brand-new birthday iPod?

So I took matters into my own hands and hand-crafted a stocking for Orbit out of leftover Opal Croc sock yarn I had in my stash.

The Days of iPods and Roses*

Wanna make one of your own? It's pretty simple.

Get out some sock yarn and some handy dandy double pointed needles. In my case, the sock yarn was Opal and the needles were 2.25 mm (US 1) Crystal Palace Bamboo. I measured the bottom of my Pod and based on previous experience with the yarn, cast on 20 stitches. When I had knit 12 rows I picked up the 6 stitches along the short side nearest the working yarn, 20 stitches from the cast on edge, and the 6 stitches on the remaining short side. I moved the stitches around so that I was using 4 needles, each one holding 13 stitches (this just made it easier for me to manage).

From here on out, the stocking is knit in the round in stockinette. On the next round, I increased one stitch in the middle of both short sides so that there were 7 stitches on each side. Now there should be two needles with 14 stitches and 2 needles with 13 stitches and the 7 side stitches were at the beginning of their needles.

After completing the increase round K1, P1 3 times, K21, K1,P1 3 times K21. This creates a little ribbing and some elasticity at the sides and helps give the stocking a little more structure. Maintaining the mixed ribbing and stockinette texture, I knit on for approximately 4 inches.

To create the flap, knit across the 20 stitches that will become the back of the stocking, then bind off purl-wise the remaining 34 stitches. The flap will be worked in garter stitch. I worked 6 rows, ending with a wrong side row. To create an opening for the headphone/remote jack, I used the buttonhole technique found here. I knit 6 stitches, created the opening by doing a seven stitch button hole, then knit the remaining 7 stitches. After that, I knit 12 rows of garter stitch.

To shape the flap, I continued in garter stitch, but decreased 1 stitch on each side of every right side row (2 stitches in from the edge) until 2 stitches remained. Then I bound off the remaining two stitches. Instead of drawing the tail through the last loop to fasten, I did a few crochet chains to create a little cord and left a few inches of yarn tail to wrap around the button I sewed on near the bottom. The flap is held down by wrapping the tail around the button, just the way the flaps on those old manila envelopes are held down.

For something I more or less knit by the seat of my pants, I'm pretty pleased with it. I was also pleasantly surprised to see that my Opal Croc yarn actually does crock!

If you're looking for other iPod cozy ideas, be sure to take a look at the iPod sweater that Wendy created for her iPod, Irving. She even provides you with handy dandy iPod dimensions (I was too lazy to measure Orbit... I just kept slipping the sock on over him to see if things were working out the way I wanted them to).

And speaking of Pods... be sure to check out Marie's Knitting Podcast. Her first edition includes my favorite sort of people... Knitting Biologists. Very cool and very fun. And I totally want to sound like Marie!

*The rose petals are left overs from the beautiful display my most wonderful husband prepared for me yesterday morning. You can click here if you'd like to see what he did. Don't blame him for the messy desk, though, I'm afraid that's entirely my own fault. And, yes, he does have a brother, but he's also married.