With Thanksgiving 2012 now relegated to history, we move inexorably forward toward winter.

With it’s shorter days and colder temperatures, winter is not exactly my favorite season, but I do enjoy the rigor of the cold days and the seriousness of purpose they seem to embody.

Even crochet becomes more utilitarian. Practical warm scarf and hat projects take priority over lacy shawls and fanciful amigurumi — and it is that practical and pragmatic edge to the year that I enjoy, despite the fact of my freezing cold feet, my icy hands which, I have been told, could be an effective tool for lowering fevers and treating bruises.

In the aftermath of Thanksgiving, I have worked to keep up with my African flower hexagon mediation and make progress with the various projects that comprise my 2012 stash down challenge.

Here is Friday’s hexagon (number 16):

here is Saturday’s hexagon (number 17):

and here is a view of the entire mediation with those two hexagons added to it:

Happy that I had managed not to fall behind with the mediation, I also made progress on the “Sherbert Mix” fat bag made using Samanta Maragno’s fat bag pattern and vintage Red Heart worsted weight wool yarn, and today, I finished adding the straps and weaving in the ends:

With the bag nearly ready for felting, I turned my attention once again to my African flower meditation and finished the eighteenth hexagon:

I know some of what tomorrow will bring, and if my schedule holds, and the temperature outside gets up to 63º F as the weather report says it will, then I will definitely be writing a blog post about how, in the waning days of autumn, I enjoyed one of the last days of sunshine and warmer temperatures the season had to offer and finished work on one more of my stash down projects.