At Another Crossroads

I have had these finished pieces waiting for me for several weeks; I am pondering about how to join them. The questions I wrestle with are these: Do I separate the four pieces and elongate the blanket by knitting panels between them? Do I enlarge it by knitting some panels at each end and then knit a border around the whole thing? Or do I just join these as they are lying on my studio floor, and place a border around them, resulting in something the size of a lap robe? It will be about 32" by 36" before the border.

And then, the question of joining arises. I have been wanting to apply what I learned about picking up stitches to the problem of joining finished pieces. Is it possible to knit a strip to go between these pieces, vertically, by picking up stitches along the first or cast-on edge and then, somehow knitting to the other two pieces on the other side?

A few from our knitting group went to The Folk Art Center Monday to see the marvelous tapestries made by a Southeastern group of 40 handweavers, Tapestry Weavers South. My, what talent! The displayed works were varied in subject matter; faces, flowers, a shell, trees and of course, the mountains were in evidence. The colors were magnificent and in a variety of yarns; some tapestries were three dimensional; abstracts were included. It was a worthwhile field trip for us. We enjoyed browsing the great crafts in other areas of the Center, too, and I found an exquisite miniature white oak basket for the dollhouse (yet to be built). Thanks, Martha! The trip was great!

What got me off track, above, was the fact that I browsed in the Folk Art Center's book section and turned a page in the Reader's Digest Knitter's Handbook by Montse Stanley. Inside I saw instructions for a technique called grafting. I wonder if it could be used in conjuction with a waste yarn technique to join the log cabin pieces above...

Hmmm...maybe I should fold up these pieces once again, and further research the ways to join them. Would you say that I am still not ready... ?

Time for Sudoku and bed! Sleep well!

Beth