Newbie with a question!

[dreamwatch]

Hello!

I am currently knitting a chenille throw from a pattern by Erika Knight in the Simple Knits for Easy Living book. The pattern is fairly straightforward - you knit 4 panels, each with an alternating pattern of knit and purl squares, and then sew the 4 panels together. My question is - is there any reason why you could not knit this in one piece? I realise that it couldn't be done on straight needles, but a circular needle would accomodate it. But before I run out and buy a circular to do it I'm just wondering if there could be a design reason for making it this way, perhaps the seams help to support the throw or something. I'm terrible at seaming, I'm a fairly novice knitter, and this is a big piece of work for me which is also a Christmas pressie for my Mother in Law, so I don't want to spend all this time knitting it only to ruin it at the end with messy seams. On the other hand I do want it done properly, so if it needs to be seamed I will learn to do it!

Thanks for any answers or opinions - I only found this site last week and I'm so pleased I did. The knitting videos are brilliant!! I taught myself to knit from the internet about 2 years ago and theres nothing better than a clear instructional video - I wish I'd found this site when I started out.