Soft Pins

A collection of my favorite pins this week.

Hello Soft Crafters!

Happy Monday. How are you? How was your weekend?

I had such a good week/weekend. It was one of those weeks filled with fun work and friends. I’m working on two knitting projects for Instagram that I’m THRILLED about. One is for the launch of HOBBII’s new line of yarn, Copenhagen Fibers, and the other is a knit kit collab from two of my faves ( hasn’t been announced yet 😝). I feel fortunate when jobs that are craft-focused come in. I spend so much time knitting in the first place as a procrastination method, so it’s actually a lot less guilt-filled. Both projects require me to hand-knit sweaters (or at least a solid amount), and I highly underestimated the time hand-knitting sweaters takes. This past week of knitting had been reminiscent of college: staying up till 3, knitting, and watching The Handmaid's Tale.

(This is off-topic, but it’s been really interesting and horrifying watching it now and seeing how not far off something like that seems. Obviously, a lot of it is dramatized, and the whole point is like “oh, this is our future,” but it’s hitting on a whole other level this time. I would suggest rewatching if you aren't experiencing enough anxiety already 🥴)

My dear dear friend Isabella visited for a couple of days, and she stayed with me. I hate to admit it, but I’m really not a come stay with me and sleep over kind of friend (I just love alone time) but this year I’m trying to open myself and my space up more to friends. It’s less of me not liking my friends and more of the switching my routine and opening my space to other people’s belongings and how they live. Like even just how people leave their clothes and suitcases out gets me. I know that’s an extremely annoying and bitchy trait to have, hence my exposure therapy.

We just wandered around my neighborhood with Jerry and ran in to oodles of people, ate amazing food, had some drinkies, and finally got to catch up. She lives in Santa Cruz and it’s hard for us to have a real catch up as we are both terrible texters, but we have one of those friendships that just always picks up no matter how long we’ve been apart. Very effortless.

We used to live together in Greenpoint, so Friday night we got a group together and hit our old spots.

Little Dokebi- Fried Chicken, Banchan, so many green tea daiquiris…

Goldie’s- Fun drinks, amazing decor, great patio, but sadly closes at 11

Tempkins- Chill drinks and Pinball

If you live in NY, I highly recommend this agenda for a night out, and I would even add Minnows if you want some late-night snacks. She was only in tow for two nights, so it was a mad dash to get everything done and squeeze all of our bonding time.

I spent Saturday and Sunday with Charlie, again just walking around with Jerry. We went to a massage spot yesterday and had one of the most amazing massages I have ever had. It was one of those holes in the wall that could be either amazing or terrible. When we got there, the front room was FILLED to the brim with people getting their feet rubbed, which was a fantastic sign. People were quite literally, working on their laptops while getting their feet rubbed, an interesting choice, but I get it.

The massage itself was more on the side of physical therapy rather than relaxation, I like that kind of massage, though. We had these two older guys who, upon first glance, would not be able to tear up our muscles (in a good way), but damn, were we wrong. This man got knots out of my lower back that have most likely been there for a decade. I think a lot of that lower back tension came from me being a tween and sticking my butt out and arching my lower back so much to get a thigh gap… sad.

All of the movements were super intentional and specific to each muscle problem. It was very much so they knew what they were doing and just knew muscle structures instead of following a routine.

That's something I have thought about a lot… is there a standardized routine for different massages, or are they just winging it? Do you have to memorize a circuit of movements, or do you have a tool belt of other things you can pull out? This is where my mind goes while I get a massage.

I am now sitting on my couch with Jerry, having just made myself a dirty martini, going to knit on the couch with Charlie while watching Wayward (that new Netflix true crime show).

Last thing!!! I have so much extra product from when I was making knitwear and would love to do a studio sale and have a large % of proceeds go to charities and orgs that are working to make the world a better place. I have a couple in mind… but what are some that you have been supporting or wanting to support.

OK, thank you for bearing with me. You can get into the pins now.

Welcome back to Soft Pins.

Hope you enjoyed, have a fabulous week.

Xx ella