User’s manuals–who reads ‘em? I do. And I keep them. Except, of course, when I need them. Tonight, facing a deadline of a show, I needed to complete 12 notecards. One of my ideas is to sew together handmade paper and use it on notecards. 
The first one worked fine, and then I needed to change the thread on the sewing machine. It’s a small machine, how hard can it be? Plenty. I removed the thread, and can’t figure out how the thread pattern works. I thought I had it, but no, the thread snapped and the bobbin jumped.
I dug through three bookshelves and can’t find the manual. Surely I can figure out how it works. No, I can not. I’ve lost an hour looking for the manual. One of the cats runs over the fine, handmade garlic paper, leaving tears in it. I’m on the edge of tears myself, here.
[In the original post, I asked for help--either by fax or by jpg or pdf. I received offers of help--people who said I could phone them, who sent me scans, who sent written directions. From Arizona, Florida, Luxembourg, and more.
In the next week, I got requests from people who had lost their manuals, too. A great use of the internet, if you ask me.]
–Quinn McDonald is a frustrated artist and writer. She may be lucky enough to put some of her new work on her website, QuinnCreative.com someday soon.
