It has been quite a couple of weeks – I’ve been working 70+ hours a week the past two weeks, not to mention my big trip to Houston TX for the conference. To be honest I never got to “see” Texas – I could have been anywhere as the conference took place in a hotel located in a huge mall and I worked 6am to 9pm everyday. But I had a great time -met some lovely people & coworkers (I pretty much only knew the events staff), everything seemed to go over well, so hopefully that will turn into a full time job for me! I really love working for this company, it is interesting (even if I don’t know much about the area they specialize in) and it definitively comes with perks – first of all, being recognized for all the work I do – I never got that at my previous employer, to be honest. Second, my main position was dealing wtih the sponsors of the conference and one of the major sponsors gave me and the 3 other people who worked closely with them 30g iPods! Not bad, considering I just have a 2g nano currently. The new iPod has a small logo of the sponsor on the back but hey, I’ll take it! I should find out this week if I will be staying on at the company -while they all love me, I work for a temp agency with a pretty high finders fee. So we’ll see.

It was definitely an experience, I’ve never been to a major business conference so it was interesting to see how it all ran, I worked in the speaker room, we had about 180 speakers, so at least I got to sit down a good part of the time & meet a bunch of VIPs, not to mention all my contacts. I also discovered something – no matter how comfortable my shoes feel in the morning they will not feel that way by the end of the day. I was hobbling around the last couple of days. I don’t really dress up all that much – the office is pretty casuel, my basic wardrobe of cords or nice pants & sweaters and my clogs or Mary Janes usually suffices – so wearing skirts with heels about killed me. My poor feet are still swollen.

And while I’m not a shopper at all, I did get to explore the high end mall a bit. I don’t buy many designer items – honestly, my “nice” clothes come from Target, H&M and thrift shops. They did have 2 designers I love there – Kate Spade & Steve Madden – but I didn’t think spending $600 on a handbag when I already have a KS purse was really something I wanted to do. So I saved my splurge for Sephora – while my clothes might not be designer at least my make up looked nice! I happen to get my tax return the day I left so I felt I needed a little treat. I also made a running trip to Lush right before I left – I wanted to feel pretty. :)

Okay, on to knitting. I feel so behind, I didn’t take one picture in Houston & I barely had time to read any blogs. I did make one yarn purchase, via Ebay, so I’ll be showing that off soon. I pretty much only worked on my new commuter socks – and I just reaized that I never posted a FO for my previous Tweedy pair and they are now in the laundry. But I ‘m off until at least Wednesday, so Monday will be the sock day. But you may have guessed I finally got some decent pictures of Cozy today- the sun is shining for once when I have time to do it. So, presenting – Cozy!

Cozy

Started: January 6th

Completed: February 3rd

Pattern: Cozy VNeck Pullover by Stefanie Japal

Yarn: KnitPicks Shamrock in Doyle, little over 10 skeins

Needles: Size 9Us & 8US

Notes: While this isn’t the most flattering sweater on me, I do love it. It is super warm & I love the colours. Shamrock is a great yarn – it felt so nice in my hand, soft and durable. The pattern is great, although I should have added more length to the sleeves & maybe to the body – a common problem for me. I ended up just going down one needles size for the deep ribbing – I thought it would be a bit too fitted on my not flat stomach – but I wish I had because it’s a little too loose. Ah well. I think that was the only mod, although I did knit the sleeves in the round. So one sweater down for the year – I’m not participating in a sweater a month KAL or anything but I do want to make (and finish!) more sweaters this year.

Next up on the sweater front is Green Gable – a pattern and yarn I’ve had for 2 years! I brought it down to Houston with me, but I didn’t work on it at all – pretty much I only had energy to do a few rounds on my sock before passing out. But I plan on starting it today!

Before I left I started a project that is a long term one.

My grandmother makes me wonderful blankets & I thought I would return the favor this year & make her a log cabin afghan from Mason Dixon Knitting. I’m working with Cotton Ease for it – I thought that would be best, as I could just pick up balls as I need it and it would be washable. I need to go to Michaels today to pick up 2 other colours (I have 3 – black for the center and light grey & dark blue). It’s a good knit to space out too and since I don’t plan on giving it to her until the holidays, not one I have to hurry up on if I get too bored.

So it is good to be home, back to the land of snow.  It was a nice break to be in warm weather – it was near 80 degrees when I got in to Houston, so all us poor MA people were shedding clothing when we stepped off the plane!  Apparently we picked a good week to be out of MA, I guess it was pretty nasty here.  I also, of course, missed CoffeeBoy dearly, especially since VDay was this week.  Poor boy tried to actually send me flowers but I never got them – I’m not sure why; even though security was super high during the conference, a couple of girlfriends got theirs.  I just hope he can get his money back!  I wouldn’t know how I would get them home anyway.  Anyway, now it’s time to play catch up and hopefully I won’t go so long between posts next time!