In the bag

With some much appreciated help in the comments and the light over my head turning on, the Everlasting Bagstopper is coming along quite nicely. For awhile I was befuddled how to pick up stitches. I was trying to pick them up clockwise. I could only do one, and even that took quite a bit of maneuvering to pull it through the edge. Eventually I realized that I needed to go counterclockwise. That made my efforts significantly easier, although picking up stitches can still be a challenge.

Thanks to Karen--who I originally thought was this Karen--I had a set number of rounds of stockinette to knit. Of course, if I weren't blind or something, I would have seen that this information is, in fact, in the pattern. I guess I stopped reading the sentence after it talks about the marker for the start of the round.

The next ordeal was getting the stitches to move on the needles when I swapped out the US 5s for the US 10 1/2s. I pushed and pushed and pushed, practically to the point of piercing my hand, but couldn't get them to budge. And then a revelation! If I replace just the needle doing the knitting until the first round is done, then I can actually do something with the stitches. Sometimes it takes me awhile...

As I've knitted the body of the bag I've learned to do the yarn overs and k2togs with less tension. If I knit them as tightly as I ordinarily would, I'll go mad before I'm done with the project.

I have some time until I have to figure out how to put handles on this thing. For now I'll enjoy the knitting and not worry about it. The color combination seems like it's something for tennis or golf equipment in the 1970s. It has an odd pull on me, as though it reminds me of something from my past that I can't quite recall.

I can see myself making several of these bags. I could certainly use a couple to take care of my small grocery store purchases, and I imagine they could come in handy for just about anyone. We'll see how long it takes me to finish one, though.

I've been knitting the bag off and on all day--there's more done than what you see in the photo--while watching the Olympics. I have three HD channels providing coverage and stayed up until nearly 3 a.m. to see the first events. Having taken a couple of fencing classes in high school, it was fun to watch women's sabre, although the action is so fast that it's almost impossible to tell for myself who earned the touches.

Also, good for NBC Universal showing events and match-ups that ordinarily don't get the TV time: France vs. Angola in women's handball, singles badminton matches without US athletes. Sure, I'm interested in watching Michael Phelps and gymnastics, but I like getting a broad view of the Summer Games. There's more available than I could ever watch, but I like having the choice.