Ah -- thank you!  That idea makes perfect sense to me now.  Thank you for clarifying what you meant. 

By the way, your colorization of the salient stitches in your recent photos is genius and has really helped me attain an understanding of how those increases work.  Thanks again!

I think I've begun to figure out the solutions to some of my sticking points, but I really wish for much more explicit directions and photos of the very beginning of the transition from the I-cord to the first few rows of the pouch, and the way the "yarn overs" that you do are done. As near as I can tell, there is an option of bringing the yarn over the needle in either of two directions, and I have no idea which way! (And am I correct that if you do the first one on a row one way, you do the opposing one the other way?)

Aaaand once again, what's irritating me is knowing that other people have managed to figure this out from your directions as-is, but I can't!  

Lol... sounds like knitting will be perfect therapy

Seriously though - slow and steady! It sounds like you probably are narrowing in on a finished sling, but I'll try to clarify for the record:

1. The chain edge. When you slip the first stitch you don't need to bring the yarn to the front, so that's an easy one - just ignore it. by skipping the "end" stitch, it makes the edge curl under nicely. In regular knitting, when you switch from a knit to a purl, say for textured patterns or ribbing, you just pass the strand from front-to-back between the needle points, which is to say between the last stitch you made and the next one to be worked.

2. Yarn overs. I just make them the "normal way" looping from back to front. In usual practice this makes a large hole, that is often used in lace knitting patterns. I don't bother with the direction because when I do the next row I take the YO off the needle and twist it the way I want. Easier than thinking ahead, and easier on the fingers.

The transition is a bit confusing because you can't see the pattern emerging until a few rows are complete. Try casting on 10 stitches as a fresh project knitting 4-5 rows and then figure out you increases/decreases on that! Try the chain edge as well. MUCH easier to see what is going on, physically easier to knit, and a huge confidence builder.

The only hurdle left is likely to be the k3tog. Those are annoying with nice soft fluffy yarn... I just work them mostly off the needles. First stitch knit, then the third, then the middle one on top.

Last night I did finally succeed in figuring out the things I didn't comprehend, so I was able to get the pouch started. The big victory was getting the increases to work and be symmetrical. (It was very important to me to keep it symmetrical instead of just accepting an asymmetrical project.)

Now that I'm on the second half, I just did my first row with decreases and I'm proceeding vert slowly and deliberately in effort to make sure I keep the symmetry going.

I have a pretty good knitting instruction booklet that specifies that k2tog slants right, and that while s1, k1, psso slants left, it is that SSK that is the mirror image of k2tog. So, on my first run through my first decrease row, I had done s1, k1, psso, I went and undid that and replaced it with a SSK.

One of the things that has happened to me since I started knitting is that I have acquired the ability to read what is going on in the yarn, and identify correct stitches and incorrect ones, and really see and understand the mechanics of how it's going together. When I was very novice (as opposed to what I am now, which I would call "advanced beginner"  ) I could not even "see" the rows. I did not know how to count how many rows had been knitted. If I didn't count from the start, I wouldn't be able to figure it out along the way.

Now that I'm half-done with this sling, I fear that I don't have enough of
this cord left on the spool to finish it.    So this may end up being a practice piece anyway.

One last question (for now, at least):

Is there a specific reason for the design to have an odd number of total rows?
Would anything change if it were an even number?

Out of curiosity, is there any reason that necessitates doing increases in a PURL row?

I found that after my ordeal to learn how to do them correctly on a knit row, and then had to figure out how to make it work on the purl row. Argh. 

So, would it make a difference to do them in one of the knit rows instead? Would there be a downside to that?

Prior to starting this sling, I did a small practice section using yarn, on which I did some increases and decreases from my booklet. I learned about that bar increase, but I think you mentioned that it doesn't
provide much slack -- and slack is crucial because the cord I'm using doesn't stretch like yarn.

So, it wouldn't cause any problem
to do the increase that you list on a purl row on a knit row instead?
Was there a reason for putting it on a purl row? I think that I'll change that on future slings I make simply for the sake of making my increases homogenous and all done with the same technique.

I will make sure to start with enough cord in the future, because on a project this small, it seems a shame to have to splice in a new spool.

I'm nearly finished with this sling -- just another foot or so of release cord to go, and I am hoping the last of my spool holds out! Getting down to the wire. ...

I finished my first knitted sling a short time ago. I'm pretty sure it is very faithful to the pattern posted.

It came out looking quite good. I'm vert happy with it, and especially happy about plans to make others, and with different materials.

A few more things about this sling:
- I used a pair of 7mm double-ended needles that came into my possession when my mother, an expert at knitting and crocheting, died in 2001.
- I used bright yellow nylon mason's twine, and had about two feet of it left on
my spool when I finished -- talk about lucky!
- My favorite thing about it is the pouch. I've never had a sling with such a secure, solid, capacious pouch. It's one sling that will be able to do everything from
rocks, to golf balls, to tennis and baseballs. (Of course, I haven't been out to try it yet.)

I think that I'm going to try one with hemp
twine this week, and I'm going to play with the needle
size and gauge to make the pouch a bit less dense with stitches (by using larger needles) while leaving the I-cord gauge the same.

Peacefuljeffrey, glad you made it, just following this thread has been a nerve-wreacking experience.
Matthias, glad you was able to explain it the way you did, and what an exceptional sling you show in your pictures.

I did not comprehend a word of it, I knitted a couple of rectangles, like 1"x3", as a kid, and that`s it.

Wonder what my mother would make of it, maybe my Christmas wish can be a knitted sling .
timann