Yet Another Coffee Cozy

Patterns for coffee cup sleeves (aka cozies) abound, but I hadn't found one that I really liked.  It needed to be big enough to fit my ceramic "to go" style cup and had to be wide enough to protect my hand from whatever sadist set the temperature on the hot water dispenser.  This one's pretty stretchy and really easy to have as a take-along for those times when I'm stuck waiting.  The photo below shows the sleeve on a ceramic tumbler.  It seems to fit much higher on the paper cups (nearly to the top on the 20 oz hot cups that I've been running into lately).

H hook
Worsted weight cotton (this was from either a "Peaches and Creme" or a "Sugar and Cream" skein)

For a wide cup band, start with ch 28, for a shallower band (the size of most paper sleeves) ch30 and stop before the 4th round of DC.

It's pretty simple - alternate SC and DC rows, increasing the SC rows by 2 evenly spaced stitches (with the exception of the 1st and last SC row). The wide cup increases by 6 stitches and the narrow one increases by 4.

The numbers in parenthesis are the count for the row and count the slip join as 1 space/stitch.

CH 28, join with slip stitch (30 for shallow sleeve)
Row 1 - ch 1 and SC in next space, SC each stitch. Join w/ sl in ch1 (28/30)
Row 2 - ch 2 and DC in next space, DC each stitch. Join w /sl in 2nd ch (28/30)
Row 3 (increase) - ch 1, sc in next space.  Make 6 sc (7 for shallow sleeve), 2 sc in next dc, make 14 sc (15 for shallow sleeve), 2 sc in next dc, and continue sc to end. Join w /sl in ch1.  The 2 sc increases should be equal distance from each other & if you fold the sleeve at the increases, the join should be in the middle. (30/32)
Row 4 - ch 2, dc in each following sc. Join w/ sl in 2nd ch (30/32)
Row 5 (increase) - ch 1, sc in next space.  Make 7 sc (8 for shallow sleeve), 2 sc in next dc, make 15 sc (16 for shallow sleeve), 2 sc in next dc, and continue sc to end. Join w/sl in ch. (32/34)
Row 6 - ch 2, dc in each following sc. Join w/ sl in 2nd ch.(32/34) - this is the last row for shallow sleeve
Row 7 (increase) - ch 1, sc in next space.  Make 8 sc, 2 sc in next dc, make 16 sc, 2 sc in next dc, and continue sc to end. Join w/sl in ch. (34)
Row 8 - ch 2, dc in each following sc. Join w/ sl in 2nd ch. (34)
Row 9 - ch 1, sc in each following dc.  No increases this row. Join w/ sl in ch1.

Finishing: cut yarn leaving a tail and pull through the slip stitch.  Weave ends in with yarn needle.
et viola!

Edit: I managed to make my hand very unhappy with me this summer (be kind to your tendons).  As a result I've noticed that my crocheting has loosened up & I've had to decrease the stitches that I've used by 1 to get the same size.  The bottom of the cozy when completed is approx 4 3/8" wide (folded) and the top of a tall sleeve is just a hair over 5" (again, folded).

Raising Good Kids

Getting a little frustrated here.  I'm trying to find parenting stuff and kids' books on morals and whatnot without getting into the G*D argument.  I'm running into crazy amounts on how to "properly" expose your kid to the Bible (including putting G*D into Science).  On the non-religious hand, I'm running into "How to raise your kid without G*D".  Damn it! I'm not looking for G*D is Dead/Fallacy either.  It's up to my kiddo as to how she forms her views and I'm not going to stuff either argument down her throat.  Yes, I'm as fed up with proselytizing Atheists as I am with the door-to-door Jesus salesmen.  And I will admit that there are a few paths that I might counsel her against (sorry dear, but do you really want to be considered property? No, he doesn't have a right to beat you.), but the choice is hers. 

Any suggestions? It's just so interesting that it'd be difficult to find a generic "it's not nice to be mean to other people even if they're mean to you" type book without getting into a Christian reading of the Golden Rule.

Please be aware that I'm moderating these posts, so don't even bother with the "You need to find Jesus" posts.