I’m barely into my first Noni bag, and I’m stumped. The pattern says to CO 48 sts and St st for 24 rows. (Good so far.) Then, I’m supposed to pick up stitches as follows: "pu 16 sts on the short end, pu 48 sts on the cast on edge, pu 16 sts on the other short end, then K across the other long end"
Nowhere does it indicate that I’m supposed to bind off, but how do I pick up sts when my knitting is on the needles? (The pattern does not indicate that I should use different needles to pu the sts) Thanks for your help!
I don’t know this pattern, but I have made other bags with similar instructions. You’ll need to be using circular needles. You don’t bind off you’re just going to add sts around the rectangle you just made.Once you finish the last St St row, you need to pick up 16 sts evenly along the short side of the rectangle you just made. I do this by placing a marker (so I know where the corner is) and with your right hand needle insert it into the first edge stitch (you don’t need the left needle) bring yarn around needle and knit it like you would a regular stitch. You then insert into the next edge stitch and knit another stitch. Do this for 16 sts, place another marker for the corner, and pick up 48 sts along the cast on edge. (one stitch in each co stitch). do another 16 sts on the other short edge and then using your left hand needle too, knit across the last 48 sts. You now have a circle of sts that are the start of the sides of the bag. You should have 128 sts on your needles.
Hope this make sense. 
This video shows how to pick up stitches. Just scroll down the page to about the middle.
It can feel pretty awkward picking up the stitches around the base of the purse you have knit. It remains awkward for the first 1-4 rows of knitting after you’ve picked up all the stitches around. But after you get knitting rows and rows and are not so close to the base of the purse, the knitting around gets much easier.
Are you using a circular needle? Or you could use 4 double pointed needles and knit w/the 5th one. You’d have 1 needle on each side of the purse base. It might be easier to do the picking up stitches with 4 double ptd needles, but I’d switch to a circ once you get a row or 2 of knitting done.