Wedding Ghan, opinions needed Please and Thanks

Work in Progress, Wed.

I have two strips for the wedding ghan currently done and am working on the 3rd (of 5 ?). My question for you all is this (click to enlarge)

How do I want to put this together? That is whip stitch vs crocheting an edge around each strip and then either crocheting together or whip stitching it together. If I had done all the separate squares, I would have edge them all in one color and joined them in the same color, probably whip stitch, which would have looked window pane like. However, by doing the strips I've eliminating the extra time for casting on and binding off over and over and over. The edges are a bit curled, but not badly as often happens with knitting vs crocheting. The pattern you now can see is the traditionally diagonal. So, crocheting an edge will flatten the curled edge which is good, but then does it detract from the diagonal pattern? Whip stitching the strips together and blocking will also take care of the slight curl. Or at least I think it should. Adding a crocheted edge increasing the size, but then which color? And that probably means I need to go buy more yarn (which would be the 3rd time I've purchased yarn for this ghan...the disadvantage of not going with a "real" pattern and guesstimating how much yarn is needed.

Then again, I might have enough yarn to make 6 strips if after doing 5 it looks like it needs to be larger? Sometimes when ghans are too large they're awkward, so I'm really thinking.

Would love some thoughts on over all design regarding edging or not. Please weight in. Thanks!

Groupon a work in progress also. lol, seriously I just purchased my 2nd groupon a short while ago and am therefore still learning how to do things on the webpage etc. Looking forward to saving more money, and trying out new places. My first groupon is for a historical homes tour which I'm really excited about. The 2nd one is for an Italian Restaurant nearby, that I didn't even know existed for 50% off! How cool is that? Do you Groupon? Give it a try by clicking here
**it's not just for young cool hip folks, old farts like me can have fun and save money with it too!

Finished Object Friday, sorta?

A completed strip for the wedding...probably a bit of a cheat; but it's all I've got to show you as a finished object...it is an object, not a project...soooooooo. I'm posting it and counting it. lol Since photographing this strip, I've been working on the 2nd strip which is coming along nicely and a bit faster then this first one did. I'm on the 5th color block of the 2nd strip. YIPPEE.

This is knitted and is the item I've been referring to as The Wedding Ghan. The light tan is the Double Eyelet pattern. I'm happy with it, and was a bit nervous when I started it, as it's my first eyelet pattern, and the first time I've done a pattern with psso in it. I had to get on line to figure out what it is (pass the slip stitch over). The medium tan is called Little Blocks and is the easiest of the 3 patterns to do...I really like this stitch and can see me using it often in other projects. The dark brown block is called Arrow Heads and is the most tedious for me with the counting; but provides lots of texture which I like, though believe it will look better once blocked. I think it's odd it doesn't have an edge of 2 or 3 garter stitches to keep it flat; but the book was trying hard I think to have all the blocks be the same size.

Click to enlarge the picture so you can see the 3 patterns and textures better. Girl time will officially start in about 2 hours...I'm sooooooooooooooooo excited.

Pink Poddle Ghan

Been awhile since I posted an update to show you progress on this diagonal striped afghan. It reminds me of back in the day, poodle skirts for those of ya as old as me. Thus it's name. When I started this ghan I had several charities in mind, one of which was my very own Bridge and Beyond for the gals at Nancy Place through Faith Mission. Then I heard about the need in Joplin, Missouri and believe if I can get it done anytime in the near future; that's where it's headed. Those folks lost so much, perhaps some young girl will enjoy curling up with this and find some comfort. Perhaps too, someone as old as me who remembers poodle skirts? I've laid this aside though for awhile in order to work on The Wedding Ghan, the wedding is after all Aug 13th...

I find when I'm tired I work on the poodle ghan, as I don't have to count or do different stitches, like I do for the wedding ghan. Don't like working on it when I'm tired, I've already frogged and made changes/corrections too many times.

Normally I have lots of projects going, but for now am just working back and forth between these 2. I do have plenty of other wip (work in progress) pieces, but I've put them all away for the time being.