Trilogy Bag Count: 40

Previous Bag the Bag projects have seemed to be progressing both faster and slower than this one. I wasn’t stopping at predetermined points to look at how many bags I’d used, it was just “oh well, it’s Friday, time for a photo shoot,” and if I hadn’t made much progress at all, I’d feel bad, and if I’d made tons, I’d feel good. Since I’m paying attention to how much Bag the Bag I get out of ten recycled bags, it’s different. And since this project has a different handle-making process, I get confused.

The handles grow taller at a different rate than the rest of the bag. A handle needs a new bag about every fifteen or so bags tall in the body. The result is that last week, Bag the Bag Part 3: the Sequel to the Sequel got significantly taller, and this week, it didn’t seem to have grown much higher at all. I was a little sad about this until I remembered that I ran out of bag on all the handles and had to replace them, so I really only used six bags on the body instead of the usual ten. I have to keep reminding myself that doing the handles this way will save a LOT of time in the end, even though it’s a bit inconvenient right now.

I’ve also reached that point again; it’s time. I have to cut a whole bunch of bags. It’s an arduous process that involves lots of static electricity, plarn everywhere for several days, and discovering which of the bags I hadn’t realized were covered in something sticky. I always look forward to getting back to the crochet part after playing with scissors and winding plarn. I could just cut the bags as I crochet, but it’s nice to have a definite way to keep track of how many bags I’m using and it also keeps the plarn neatly in one place, all ready to go.

I wonder how much more plarn I’ll need to cut before this thing is finished!
Trilogy Bag Count: 40