connect nodes / continue drawing on an open path

[entlein]

Dear advanced Affinity folks,

I could not get this to work: I want to combine two curves. When I join the paths (with the respective action in the context menu) it always joins those two ends that were predetermined by the order in which I drew the nodes initially. I want to connect the other open ends, though. Is this the way it is or is there a workaround?

 

Secondly, I do not seem to be able to continue closing a path once I interrupted the drawing process.

[R C-R]

The Join Curves action connects the two nearest nodes of whatever open paths you have selected, one from each path. It doesn't have anything to do with the drawing order of the paths, their winding direction, or which nodes might be selected in each path. Once a number of curves have been joined into one curve (so there is just one red node), to connect the remaining pair of open ends, use the Close Curve action.