My current front burner project is finishing this future granny square purse that I began in the middle of October:

Obviously, it is not going quickly, but this weekend, I finally seemed to have gotten some forward momentum that I hope will propel me to a bag ready for adventure.

First, I finished crocheting the textured strap I had begun work earlier in the week, and while there are a couple of ends to weave in, the crocheting itself is done:

Not sure exactly what I would do with the strap or how I would incorporate it with the other cords I had made, I then turned my attention to two of the ends of the zipper that had bedeviled me.

While the method I had used for joining the zipper had gone swimmingly, I had made no provision for what to do with the ends of the zipper, two of which were causing an awkwardness with zipping and unzipping.

Uncertain what to do, I decided I would try sewing them together.

Which I did.

It helped a lot, but did not completely ameliorate the zipping and unzipping situation, but buoyed by the success that there was, I decided to just keep sewing, and I tacked the ends of the zipper down to both the crochet part of the bag and the lining, and while the look is not gorgeous, it did fix the problem:

The sewing had also given me time to ruminate on finishing the bag, and that rumination led me to get out a 4.0 mm hook and crochet a simple 5-petal flower, which then led to this:

Sixteen five-petal crochet flowers later, I was ready to lay down my hook.

I don’t know exactly how I will put together all of the elements I have crocheted so far into a cohesive whole, but I’m sure that if I just keep crocheting, something will come to me.