Handmade Holidays- Trinity Stitch Cup Sleeves

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In case you have missed it this year I am doing a series leading up to Christmas- 12 Weeks of Handmade Holiday Gift Ideas. Each weekend I am sharing 2 new handmade gift ideas, one crochet and one another type of craft. I am trying to focus on small, quick, and inexpensive projects that you still have plenty of time to make before Christmas. This week will finish up the first half of the series, week 6 of 12. 

My last sewing project was a coaster and I feel like today's project is kind of in the same realm, today I am making a crocheted cup sleeve. So not something to set your drink on, but something to help you hold a drink. 

Just like the coasters I think you could give just the cup sleeve, or a set of them. Or you could pair it with something else to go along with it. Some ideas would be a reusable lidded cup, a favorite drink or drink mix, or a gift card to buy themselves a drink. 

I have already used the trinity stitch in a couple of the crochet projects I have made in this series, the book sleeves from a couple of weeks ago, and in the washcloth from last week I used a variation of the trinity stitch alternated with rows of single crochet. So I figured why not use it again for this project. I actually used a different stitch first and just felt like I needed something with a little more texture so I remade it with the trinity stitch and I thought it worked so much better for this project. The little puffs you get when you work the trinity stitch in the round were exactly the texture I wanted. 

I made my cup sleeve to fit a 16 oz cup, and from the measurements I found online I think it will work for a range of cup sizes. The finished sleeve was about 4.5" across laid flat, and 3" tall. However, if that size does not work for a cup you are using, like maybe you want to make a sleeve for a glass cup that is a little bit larger in circumference, you can easily adjust the size of the cup sleeve by adding to, or subtracting from, your starting chain. You just need to be sure to start with a multiple of two. Same with the height of the sleeve, if you wanted it taller you could add an additional round or two, I don't know that I would recommend going skinner that the pattern, but if you did want to do that you could always do a round or two less. I used acrylic yarn for mine, some people recommend using cotton for the heat and moisture, but I felt like it shouldn't get so hot that the acrylic would be a problem. I have seen both types of yarn used, but if you choose to make it with cotton instead you may need to adjust the size a little bit to match the gauge. 

This is the first pattern of week 6, which means we are just about halfway finished, which also means halfway to Christmas from where we started.This puts us at a total of 11 different handmade holiday gift ideas so far- the Solitude Scarf, Corner Bookmarks, the Merry Hat, a Fabric Lanyard, Trinity Stitch Book Sleeves, an Initial Trinket Tray, a Sleepy Baby Doll, a Charm Square Doll Blanket, the Evergreen Washcloth, Charm Square Coasters, and now Trinity Stitch Cup Sleeves. 

How to Crochet Trinity Stitch Cup Sleeves

You will need:

• medium weight yarn (sample made in Red Heart Super Saver Bitty Stripes in Festive)
• H crochet hook (5 mm)
• yarn needle
• scissors

Instructions:

Note: to adjust the size of the sleeve you can adjust the length of your beginning chain to any multiple of 2 required to get you the size you need. If you want it to be taller you can add more of the trinity stitch rounds. 

sc3tog: insert hook in first st, pull up a loop, insert hook in next st, pull up a loop, insert hook in next st, pull up a loop, yo, pull through all 4 loops on hook

Cup Sleeve

Finished Size 4.5" across laid flat, 3" tall

ch 30, sl st in first ch to join in a circle

Round 1: ch 1, 1 sc in each st, sl st to first sc to join (30 sc)

Round 2: ch 1, [sc3tog, ch 1] repeat around always starting your sc3tog in the same st as the last leg of the previous sc3tog, sl st to first sc3tog to join (15 sc3tog, 15 ch sp)

Rounds 3-7: repeat round 2 (15 sc3tog, 15 ch sp)

Round 8: ch 1, 1 sc in each st around, sl st to first sc to join (30 sc)

Finish off, cut yarn, weave in ends