Note to my readers: This post was first published on August 5, 2011 under the title “A crochet paradox.”

I have had all of the squares for the Quadrant Blanket (times three) finished for just over a week now, but I have resisted completing the joining of the squares because I had no idea as to how I would finish the blanket.

Through not fault of its own, the blanket remained tucked away in a cubby of my recently reorganized shelving unit in what amounts to Unfinished Object Limbo.

My refusal to join the squares because I did not know what I wanted to do for a finishing edge, meant that I got no closer to finishing it.

So today, after I had completed a morning full of errands, I decided to practice mindful crochet, and I began piecing together the squares trying to concentrate only on getting them assembled.

At first, it seemed pointless. As I joined the squares (right sides together with a slip stitch through the back loops only) my mind sorted through all of the borders I had considered and then rejected.

But then, after I had all twelve squares joined, something funny happened:

I finally got an idea for a border that just might work.

Unlike the groovyghan that I recently finished, I think that a border is essential to completing this piece, and because I am intending to donate it to Project Linus, I want an unfringed edge so that the resulting blanket is easy to wash.

And because (until this afternoon), I refused to take the steps necessary to more forward on completing this project, the project would not be finished.

I don’t yet know if my latest idea for a border for this project will work, but I do know this: sometimes the only way to move forward is to move.