Not the actual machine, but a similar one.

Knitting is hip, as Britta from Community told us, because Winona Ryder knits, a justification that caused much laughter and derision from her fellow under 30 students. But any kind of crafting is always cool by us, and you can enable your knit fix with this free Singer knitting machine someone in Prospect Heights just put out for free on the curb. The owners ays it was bought on eBay years ago but only used a few times, and is good condition with all the weights, tools and instructions. Make us something nice, will ya? Just please don’t make it out of cat hair please.

Safak Aydemir's hand-beaded necklaces.

Stroll down Bedford Avenue on a nice day and the life of a street-vendor can look pretty appealing. So free, so independent, seem those hawkers of books and sellers of handmade mobiles you pass on the sidewalk. You start to wonder what it takes to make a living like this—whether street-vending just might be a viable career path. We’ve certainly wondered all this, and now, after badgering a few street vendors and hard-working public servants, the idea doesn’t seem so far-fetched. For all the enterprising New Yorkers out there with a folding table and dream, the many strings attached and city regulations are no barrier to engaging in this barely tolerated form of commerce. (more…)

If you’ve been whiling away your summer playing Sotomayor-confirmation-hearing drinking games (“They said ‘litmus test!’ Shot!”), you probably could be doing a lot more to entertain yourself. There are, after all, hundreds upon hundreds of people out there in the borough casting out blind but optimistic fishing lines of friendship on the internet, looking for Scrabble buddies, book club members and even fellow unemployeds to fill out a work day morning pick-up soccer game. It’s called Meetup.com, and it sometimes reads like a wonderful post-college campus activities handbook. In fact, you could spend the whole week Meetingup with different groups and expanding your horizons without spending too much money. (more…)