Last week was great – I knew there was a long weekend coming up, I had locked myself in to buy a loom, and there was barbeque and puppy kisses a plenty to look forward to. So naturally at around noon on Friday I started living on my e-mail, because somehow starting something you have no hope of finishing isn't the way I like to start any weekend.

At about two in the afternoon a little e-mail came through my inbox, titled “OFFER: Sewing Machine“. The Freecycle Gods had smiled on me!!!

I think that a lot of people have heard of Freecycle, but just in case here's my sum up of the whole organization: it's awesome. You heard it from me! Essentially, most cities in the world have a local chapter of Freecycle, so you go to their website, find your city or town,  join the mailing list, and prepare to be pummeled with e-mails for free stuff. Have a box of sawdust you don't need? A camera? A backpack? A bag of size small women's clothing? A sewing machine? List it on freecycle and anyone who wants or needs it can make their case for why they should have your stuff – and then you get to decide who gets to come pick it up.

I've been a member for about a year now and most of the time the e-mails just filter into my gmail folders and nestle there happily until I purge them, but on Friday I made my first plea to a Freecycler that went like this:

“Hi! My name's Kyla, I can pick the sewing machine up by 5:00 pm today!

As for why you should give it to me, I'm getting a small craft business off the ground with some really neat knits, but I have a problem – I have what's starting to become chronic pain in my arms at the tender age of 23 because of overuse! I love knitting, but it kills me and I have to find something else that will allow me to still make things but not in a way that requires the fine movements that knitting does. Please help! Here is my online store link so you can see the kinds of things I make, the low stock levels because of the time each of my knits takes, and who you would be helping out. Thank you!“

And within 5 minutes I got the email back:

“Hi Kyla! Cool neckwarmers, it's great to be able to help out someone with a really concrete goal that they would be using the sewing machine towards – I'll see you at 5:00 pm, my address is _________________ Ave., just Buzz apartment #2!”

So this weekend I went from 2 knitting needles in the craft department to 2 knitting needles, 1 loom, and 1 sewing machine! I love the internet!!I just need to get a new needle for it, and then a whole other world of making stuff opens up…

My new sewing machine (it works!!)

And, my little table loom…

The loom is about 2 feet wide and actually not so little and still needs to be assembled in part, which will probably end up being an after the wedding thing. Good thing it comes with the original instruction manual, or I would have to find an art history major stat.

The Loom Lady, who was also an internet stranger from a classifieds site actually didn't have the fifty thousand cats I had anticipated but she loved the puppies and was really upset that I didn't tell her I had puppies or she would have “brought the dog clothes out from storage – did you know you can put them into little oufits? Our dogs had full snowsuits…and they were funky ones!….They're around here somewhere…”

Needless to say, as she took a turn for the house we thanked her, hopped in the car and took off!! Another bulled dodged…

All in all a very successful weekend, and I can now know for sure that there's going to be no shortage of things for me to do this winter.I just hope it doesn't come too fast!