What to do with hole-y socks Part 6 (and last)

 Finally! We will go on to another topic next week. But i have to share this last item with you but I am so excited about it. This will work for you if you don't wear through the toes of your socks, because we will be using the toes.

 I always felt bad throwing the toes out. Not very bad, but just a little bad. And the result of this is such a useful object for me. I am a headphone junkie. I have lots of different headphones. Some are for running, some are for sleeping, some are for planes, etc. They are a pain to keep neat. The more expensive ones come with their own case but the cheap ones don't. So this pattern for a earbud case hits the spot extremely well.

 Pick up sts at the top of the toe. You may be able to use yarn you've unraveled but usually there isn't enough to actually knit a case. So attach a piece of yarn from elsewhere in the sock, or a new piece of yarn. In this case, you can see a little of the st pattern right below the needles. This is important because you want a bit of a straight part before you start decreasing. Sometimes you will have enough to just start decreasing. At other times, you will have to knit straight for a bit before you start decreasing. All of this is rather organic. I have been knitting straight for about 1/2" to 3/4".

 Once the straight part is knit, I start decreasing 4 sts on every other round, exactly as you would decrease for the toe. The idea is to reduce the circumference a bit to hold the earbuds in place. The case doesn't need to go down to a very narrow top. I decreased 4 times, so 8 rounds of decreases. Then I switched to rib and ribbed straight for 8 rounds - which is about 1". Then a loose bind off in rib. That is it.

 The other side is from the sole so there is not little row of patterning.

 Earbuds in the case.

 A view from the side.

 The earbuds next to their case so you can see how big or small they are relative to the case. I ended up with two of these from the pair of socks. One lives by my bed for my night-time earbuds and this one lives in my purse with these earbuds that I use for walking, running, housework, gardening, etc.

 I also made another one from this sock. You can see the shape is a bit different. In this case, the sock was knit with slightly bigger needles but I was lazy and didn't feel like digging out another set of needles so the top of the earbud case was knit with a smaller needle that the bottom. But it works.

If you wear a hole through your toes, you can easily knit one of these cases. I would just start with a slightly wider bottom - maybe 40 total sts in a sock gauge rather than the 24 or 32 we usually start fingering gauge socks with. That is both sides of the cast on, using something like Judy's magic cast on. Increase every other round 5 times which will result in 60 sts (40 cast on + 4x5 increased). Knit even around for 1" or so and then do the decreases and bind off as above. If you have larger earbuds, then you can make it larger.

Interesting, isn't it? These earbud cases also make good quick little gifts for people and there is time to make them before Christmas!

I think I will do a travel post next week as I don't have anything else to write about re: knitting or spinning. I need to get the spinning wheel going again but I've been busy around the house and with other things on weekends.