Features

The iPod sock

16th December 2004 [MacUser]

As the cold winter nights draw in, spare a thought for your iPod. What it needs is a knitted sock to keep it protected snugly against the elements.

As part of the launch event for the iPod photo, Apple's CEO, Steve Jobs, also took the wraps off The Next Big Thing: the iPod Sock and Apple is now shipping these novelty iPod cases for Ł19. If this price is a little rich for you then we have provided you with our own pattern for the perfectly knitted DIY solution.

Don't feel you have to slavishly follow our patterns. Get creative with colours, stripes, novelty wools, buttons or zips. You could even, if you are particularly adept, knit an Apple logo into the pattern. We've introduced a Velcro fastener into our design, but feel free to omit this and just knit a little shorter.

If the following pattern reads like utter gibberish, take it to a suitably woolly-fingered relative along with the requisite wool and a family-size box of Roses to have one made for you. And remember that while the knitting directions might look like another language to you, there is every chance that talk of dpi and megapixels sounds just as outlandish to them.

We would be interested to see what creative juices

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our patterns have inspired, so please email a photo of your labours to mailbox@macuser.co.uk. The best designs will be shown in the magazine in a forthcoming issue.

Original design sock
Materials. One 25g ball of blue double knitting wool; one 25g ball of light blue double knitting wool; our size 10 knitting needles; small piece of Velcro.
The pattern. Cast on 48 stitches: 16 stitches on each three pins; 36 rows blue; 10 rows light blue. Every row: K3, P1, K1, P1. Cast off row: K3, K2 tog to end. Join sides together leaving top end open. Sew Velcro to inside of top.

Mixed colour sock
Materials. One 25g ball of grey double knitting wool; one 25g ball of black double knitting wool; ne pair of size 11 knitting needles; small piece of Velcro.
The pattern. (Make two sides) Using one grey and one black together cast on 22 stitches. Every row for 34 rows: K1, P1 and then cast off. Join sides together leaving top end open. Sew Velcro to inside of top.

Learning to knit
If you are not overly familiar with the art of knitting and you would like to follow our patterns then the websites below may help. Both provide basic, illustrated instructions that explain how to get started, while the latter goes further showing how to perfom some more advanced knitting techniques.
› Vogue Knitting
› Wonderful Things