The money tree

I was hiking with a dog in Claremont Canyon Preserve, and paused among a little stand of redwood trees so he could rest in the shade. As I was slowly meandering, I looked down and saw some coins at the foot of one of the trees. I stopped, leaned over, and realized that it was quite a large amount of coins. They were nearly all pennies, but I'm a frugal person, so I decided to collect them.

As I was doing so, I realized that were a few tiny items along with the coins - a bead, two sequins, and a beautiful, tiny, light blue egg. And there was a feather stuck vertically into the ground.

This was... purposeful. It didn't look like someone had simply dropped their change and not bothered to pick it up.

I looked around more, and realized that there were coins stuck in the base of the tree, in the troughs made by the bark. (You can see in the top picture that redwood bark is not smooth, but grows in ridges.) I started picking them out. And kept finding more, and more, and more coins, distributed all around the tree, as high as I could reach. They were still mostly pennies, but there were also three $1 bills curled up tightly and stuck in tiny holes in the bark, and two pieces of paper:

My best guess is that this was someone's celebration of graduating from UCB.

In the end, I had acquired $3 in bills at $3.43 in coins.

I thank whoever left the coins in the tree - not just for the little extra money (that will cover the price of two small Kindle books!) - but also for the twenty minutes of amazement and seeking circuit fun I experienced.

Pajama pants

Five weeks ago, I started a Sewing 101 class at Stonemountain and Daughter Fabrics in Berkeley. We had a small selection of beginner projects to choose from, and coincidentally, almost everyone chose the same pajama pant pattern. I bought a very thick and soft flannel for my own pants. It took longer than I expected to complete them - the instructor took us through all the details of ironing the fabric and the pattern, selecting which size to cut, lining it up along the grain of the fabric, putting the pieces together, carefully sewing and serging, putting in an elastic waistband, and hemming the bottom.

The pattern has too much fabric along the crotch and is baggy on me even for PJs, but I was pretty much expecting that on my petite frame. Otherwise, I'm happy with it. I already wore the pants once but of course they are way too warm for this time of year! So back in the closet they go for five months.

Here is the pattern I used: Kwik Sew K3602.

I used size M, but I had to shorten both the top and the bottom of the pants for them to be the right height.

I purposely hemmed them short at the bottom because I prefer them to be well off the ground when I'm going out in the yard in the morning and evening and it's dark and there is dog poop. Plus I like my pants to be short enough that the bottom doesn't get caught in the tongue of my tennis shoes.

The pattern didn't have pockets but the instructor helped me insert them. Since the flannel is bulky, I used scrap pieces of cotton fabric - a different one for each pocket.

Here's the nicely-sewn waistband.

I used a serger for the first time!

Since the front and back look similar, the instructor had us attach little tags to the back. She sent some scrap fabric through the serger to make thin, colorful strips. I love the idea! I feel like I should find a fabric that I identify with and keep serged strips around for all the clothes I'll make in the future. It's a pretty, personal touch.

There is one more class meeting to go before the session ends. I'll be starting work on an apron, so that I no longer get flour all over my shirt when I'm making bread.

First crocheted item - v-stitch hat

I crocheted myself a v-stitch hat! I even figured out the number of v's to use by myself, because I couldn't figure out the instructions I was trying to use!

Pro: I love the ruffly brim, and the bright pink on black combo.

Con: It makes me look like a chemo patient with no hair even more than most hats do.

I broke my cheap plastic crochet hook right before the end, so I stopped by A Verb for Keeping Warm in Oakland and bought a proper steel one. Of course I also bought some soft Merino yarn while I was there.

One can never have too many crafting hobbies, I say.

Homegrown potatoes

I was ridiculously excited to dig up the potato plants last week! Of course I took pictures of the adventure!

The tubers are ready when the plants above are dying back.

The first potato comes into sight!

Whee! This plant was the largest, and had the most taters.

Most of them were this size or smaller.

These are the remains of the seed potato that brought this plant to life.

The entire harvest. Yeah, it's a tiny garden.

I saved the two largest ones to replant this weekend. Since we still have plenty of sunshine and warm weather ahead of us, I'm hoping there'll be time for a second harvest. (Ah, California!)

The rest of them I boiled with a bit of salt. I ate a few straight out of the pot, and the rest will be going down with borscht.

I'm thinking that I'll replace some of my containers with a raised bed before I start planting for the fall. It'll give me significantly more planting room within the same square footage in the yard.

My first homemade garment: Lilit's dolman shirt

For my first ever attempt at garment-making (not counting hats), I followed this great tutorial to make a dolman style shirt for my friend's daughter, Lilit. I wanted my first try to be for a little kid, since it would require less time and materials. Also, since kids grow so quickly, I knew my friend would appreciate the attempt even if it didn't turn out all that well.

I chose an organic cotton fabric, since cotton is easy to work with. It turns out that Lilit likes loose, thin clothes (or just being naked), so it's also a good fit for her.

I made this pattern by tracing a couple of her existing shirts, and sizing it up. Fabric weights and a rotary cutter made this much faster than pinning and cutting with scissors!

Lilit likes the animals. The shirt has the same shape for the front and back, so it doesn't matter which way you put it on. I have another cotton print that I'll use to make her a second dolman shirt, and I'll try having a more scooped neck on the front for that one.

I had not yet started my Sewing 101 class, so I didn't know how to hem. I just folded the ends over and used a zig zag stitch. With the wrong tension, at first. It's not pretty, but it'll do. I'll do a nicer hem for the second shirt.

Look what an adorable model Lilit is! The wide neck hole turned out to be the perfect size, since it doesn't stretch. It's got too much fabric underneath that, around the armholes. The bottom of the shirt is a good width to go around her pants. I'll see if I can fix the pattern for my second try. I'm learning as I go!