An Easter Story

I hope it isn't too sacrilegious to post this story, but I am so pleased.  Three years ago, in spring of 2010 my climbing American Beauty roses were finally mature enough to put on their once-a-year incredible bloom flush.  It had taken me four years to grow the roses from gallon pots to climbing from the ground to the deck and then to climb over the trellises above the swing.  They were awesome.  Here are some photos of them that year:

Climbing American Beauty Roses (2010)

Roses from the Side (2010)

 Then, you may remember, my next-door neighbor cut all my roses to the ground.  Darkness kept her from cutting the second of the two American Beauties and my hysterical screaming kept her away from my roses the next day.  It has taken three years, but the roses have grown back up and look like they're going to put on the same show this year.

2013 Climbing American Beauty Roses

Just a few of the roses have opened but the majority of the buds have broken color.  I'm expecting them to pop this week or next.  Exciting!  The horticulturist at the Antique Rose Emporium (which has since closed its San Antonio location) told me to put Rose Tone on them and pray back in 2010.  I did and they lived.  Bless them!  I think they may be the only plants that she cut back that did live.

I recently reread Frances Hodgson Burnett's The Secret Garden. It was one of my favorite books as a child.  However, I didn't realize how much it influenced both my ideas of gardening and my ideas about religion.  I think I may have finally achieved something like my own Secret Garden.  Today's photos didn't turn out as well as I'd have liked, but here are a few of them:

Tamora

I only have two hybrid tea roses in the garden.  They don't do as well in South Texas as I'd like.  Mostly, I have David Austin roses and antiques.  The climbing American Beauty roses are antiques.  Tamora is a David Austin rose.  Here's the garden:

The Secret Garden

Again, not the best photo.  I'll try to get more when the Beauties bloom.

Roses, Roses!

Just a quick post to show off my roses.  The "Secret Garden" is starting to bloom!  The roses are growing up into the trees above, over the arch and are covering the swing.  The climbing American Beauties are about to pop.  They're still in tight bud stage, but they should make a great show this year.

Remember the trip to Bellingrath Gardens?  Remember the Moonstone rose and how I said I just might get one?  Well, I got one this week!  I got the last one at the nursery and it's a beautiful, healthy rose!  It has several buds and just one open flower.  Normally, I'd never cut a rose from a first year plant, but we're supposed to have 35 mph winds and the poor bloom would be blown to kingdom come.  So here it is!

Moonstone Rose

  The David Austin roses are starting up.  Mary Rose only has a couple of open blooms, but both Tamora and Ambridge are going strong.  Sadly, the blooms will probably be blown off tomorrow, but I could only bring myself to cut one of them.  Here's a Tamora rose.

Tamora Rose

Here's to beautiful roses!

See you next time!

Visiting Frank Lloyd Wright

The Arizona Biltmore Resort

Corporate annual conferences can be tricky things.  I don't envy anyone who gets to plan them.  How do you find the balance between useful information and putting everybody to sleep??  And let's face it - after years of studying psychology and learning to analyze research, I'm more than a little skeptical of the latest 2-day change-your-life psycho-babble.  But this year's conference had something going for it that no other conference I've ever attended has had.  This year's conference was held in Phoenix, Arizona at the fabulous Arizona Biltmore Resort.

I was prepared to enjoy our stay here because a little research indicated that the hotel's design had been heavily influenced by Frank Lloyd Wright.  Now, before anybody gets in any place about who designed it, Albert Chase MacArthur is the architect of record, so he, by golly, gets the credit.  However, it's undeniably true that the old man had a hand in it.  Just how much of a hand remains something of a mystery.  I can't seem to find a straight story anywhere, so that will have to be one of those things that remain a mystery.  My gut feel (worth absolutely nothing) is that MacArthur had more of a hand than many of the stories indicate.  The influence is more Art Deco than I associate with Lloyd Wright.  Anyway, whoever had the upper design hand, the place is gorgeous!  For an architecture fan, the place is heaven.

The Main Tower

For some unknown reason, I didn't take my camera.  There wasn't any time, what with corporate functions.  Fortunately, my trusty Samsung Note 2's camera was up to the task and I got lots of photos.  I even had time to do a couple of sketches.  Neither is any good as I am beyond out of practice, but I had fun anyway.

The Sprites
Here's another Biltmore Mystery.  There are statues scattered around the grounds - the official book says six, but I only found five.  The statues were designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.  That much everyone agrees on.  He designed them for Chicago's Midway Gardens.  When the Gardens were demolished, the statues disappeared.  Depending on which version of the story you get, the six at the Biltmore are six of those original statues.  Or they are copies made from the molds of the original statues.  Or they are smaller copies of six of the original statues.  Who cares?  They're gorgeous in a very... well... Art Deco, geometric way.  They are dramatically lit at night and placed such that the sun casts their features in a different relief at different times of day.  I photographed the five I found (and sketched one of them).  Here are two of my favorites - the sprites in the main courtyard:

The Sprites in the Main Courtyard

Hopefully, this photo will explain what I mean by the dramatic lighting.  Here are the same sprites at night:

Sprites at Night

One sprite, all by herself, is placed by the fountain in the courtyard between the Valley wing and the Paradise Wing.  As our room was in the Paradise Wing, I consider her "my" sprite.  She's the one I sketched while playing hookey from one of the sessions.

My Sprite

The Restaurants
As if the architecture, comfortable rooms and unobtrusive, yet excellent service wasn't enough, there's the food.  Oh my!  There are two main restaurants. a deli and a couple of bars.  We never got a chance to try the deli, but we headed for the main restaurants every chance we got.  Wright's, the more up-scale of the two, is rated the number one restaurant in Phoenix on TripAdvisor.  There is definitely a reason for it. We decided to treat ourselves to dinner there the first night before the conference started.  Wow.  Just wow.

The service, as I've said, is exceptional everywhere in the Biltmore, but nowhere is it as noticeable as in the restaurants.  Tom, our waiter that evening, was great.  He explained the menu, the thinking behind the way the chef prepares dishes, and even tried to find out for me if the architectural drawings on the wall were MacArthur's or Wright's.  (And if they were copies or originals.)  (My guess is MacArthur's and they're copies of the originals.)

The food was well-prepared and the flavors were perfectly balanced.  I wish I could invent something as good!  The chef gets a half-point subtracted because the textures weren't totally there, which indicates to me that they were a tad overdone, but, hey, what do I know??  Dessert?  Get the souffle!  They offer three versions, but we never got beyond the Grand Marnier version!

Tom told us that he worked at one time in the second of the main restaurants, Frank & Albert's.  He suggested that we would enjoy breakfast there and to definitely get their French Toast. So the next morning, where did we find ourselves?  That's right!  Having breakfast at Frank & Albert's!

The Exterior of Frank & Albert's

I think the wing where Frank & Albert's is located is newer than the main building of the hotel.  I can't swear to that, however, because it looks just like the rest of it.  And yes, get the French Toast.  You'll think I'm crazy for recommending it when you see it.  It's a loaf of brioche.  Yes, a loaf.  It's filled with lemon mascarpone.  You'll think you're getting a brick.  You're not.  It's the lightest, most delectable thing I've ever had for breakfast.  George got the Eggs Benedict.  Instead of using lemon as the flavor base, they use a chili base.  They also replace the Canadian bacon with smoked pork.  It's yummy, too, but give me the French Toast every time.  We had breakfast there twice, lunch once and had Cheryl wait on us each time.  Get Cheryl if you possibly can.  She's a jewel!  We did have dinner once at Frank & Albert's, but we weren't as impressed.  I think breakfast and lunch are their specialties.  Well, those and...

Afternoon Tea

And then there's tea.  Oh  yes, there's tea.  Why Teatime magazine hasn't run an article devoted to the Biltmore, I'll never know.  Tea is served from Thursday through Sunday, from noon to 2.  Reservations are not only required, they must be made at least 24 hours in advance.  An area of the lobby next to the front windows is set aside for the tea.  We got the best table of all - a quiet table for two overlooking the beautifully manicured front lawn.

Two gentlemen guided us through the wonders of Tea at the Biltmore.  Kevin, the senior of the two, is the "tea sommelier."  He is very knowledgeable about teas and is generous about sharing that knowledge.  This is obviously his passion and it's a joy to see someone do what they should be doing.  I wish I knew the name of the younger gentleman.  I think he's a tea expert on the way up.

Tea consists of three (yes, three) courses.  There's the savories course, the bread course and the dessert course.  Although it all looks delicate, there's an impressive amount of food here.  You've been warned.

The Savories Course

Lobster salad, smoked salmon, Waldorf salad, stuffed cherry tomatoes...  There are seven little sandwiches and they're all delectable.  The bread course consists of two scones and poundcake.

The Dessert Course

And then there are the desserts.  There are six delicate yummies, which are very, very good... and very, very filling.

There are 10 types of teas offered and you can have a different tea with every course.  Kevin has his suggestions, and my suggestion is to take his suggestions.  At first, I was dismayed that no milk is offered with the teas.  However, even the black teas are light and really don't need milk.  My favorite tea story is about the African Solstice tea, a rooibos tea.  I've tried rooibos teas from Teavana and the Republic of Tea and really hated them.  Kevin suggested the African Solstice for the bread course as the vanilla scent of the tea would compliment the breads.  I turned up my nose at the suggestion, but he gently persuaded me to give it a try.  Need I say that I found a tin of African Solstice at a local shop to bring home with me??  In fact, I may go get a cup of it right now!

A Very Happy Tea Drinker

So, if you ever find yourself in Phoenix, go visit the Arizona Biltmore Resort.  Visit for tea, for a meal or, if you're very, very lucky as we were, stay awhile.

And if you ever figure out who really did design it, would you let me know??

A New Year, A New Project

As part of my ongoing towel production, I thought I should make kitchen towels for my son.  I've made them for my daughter, for my boat and for me.  Why should my poor son be left out?  His taste runs to something between Baroque and Steampunk.  Favorite colors are black and gold.  I was going to make him waffle weave towels like the others I've done recently, but hey.  How Steampunk can waffle weave be??

So I remembered a beautiful complex twill in Carol Strickler's A Weaver's Book Of 8-Shaft Patterns.  The draft is a 7-shaft reduction of a 16-shaft twill called Bethlehem Star.  I thought it would be beautiful in black and gold.  After working it out in my weaving software, I realized I didn't have enough of either color to warp the project.  So I made upset muttering noises and proceeded to ask my friend if she had any 8/2 unmercerized cotton in her stash.  She had over 2 pounds of black, but older black from a different maker.  I took it anyway and warped it on.  Let me tell you, black is not the easiest color to warp when your eyes aren't the best and when there's no good natural light in the weaving room!  Anyway, I got it on and proceeded to weave...

And wound up with 16 broken warp threads in the first repeat.  But it IS beautiful!

Joseph's Towels

I don't know if the thread is too weak to use in the warp or if I'm having abrasion problems.  I cut off the first repeat and decided to re-tie and try again.  I used a lighter tension and got through a couple of repeats without a broken thread and then, bam!  I'm up to six broken threads again.  However, I have noticed that the upper and lower shaft bars are hitting the warp, so I may need to re-tie the shafts.  Not my favorite task, but I really don't want to have to re-thread this project.

I Still Knit

Squirrel Slippers

Did everyone think that I've stopped knitting?  I do still knit.  I finished these adorable tree-squirrel-heart slippers from Laura Farson's Knitting Scandinavian Slippers and Socks.  These have had their share of problems as well.  I started them in Queensland Kathmandu Aran.  We had it on clearance at the shop and I do love Donegal-style wools.  1) I didn't have enough natural and we didn't have more, 2) the Donegal characteristics obscure the pattern and 3) the second slipper was MUCH bigger than the first.  I must have been uber-tense with the first one.  I ripped out the second slipper and made more of those upset muttering noises.

But I did really want those slippers, so I started over using colors in the Ella Rae Classic Heather we carry at the shop.  They turned out beautifully!  They're not as warm as my felted slippers, so I tend to put them on when I'm working at my desk or have my feet up on the glider or am weaving.  But they're wonderful!  I have a second set on the needles in a icy, heathery blue and natural.  They're done with snowflakes.  At least I won't have so many ends to work back in!!

January White Sale
January is my time to work on the house.  I've driven everyone crazy with reorganization, but I'm liking it.  I changed out the bedding.  I needed a lighter down coverlet on my bed and while finally getting that taken care of, I noticed that Restoration Hardware had real linen sheets on sale.  I splurged and got myself a set.  Now that's luxury!!  I've replaced missing pieces of my stoneware, flatware and my grandmother's silverplate.  I'll replace the single broken piece of my grandmother's china.  I moved the flatware from here to there in the kitchen and bought plain cotton napkins to use instead of paper towels.  I LOVE this time of year!!

In fact, I think I'll go move other things around!

Lots of Hemming

I've finished both sets of towels that I talked about in the last post.  I wound up with a stack of seven towels to hem and enough extra fabric to make two potholders.  By Sunday (yesterday), all the hemming was done and the potholders were made.  I'm happy with the results!

Gypsea's Towels (and Potholders)

First up are the towels for the sailboat.  We've neglected poor Gypsea for the last couple of years.  We haven't been up much at all, and I know she's suffering from lack of care.  We'll start back at New Year's.  We like to spend New Year's Eve on the boat and have plans to do so again this year.  At least I'll have a small pressie for a neglected sailboat!

Ripsmatta Towels

And the ripsmatta towels are finished.  The project plans called for three towels from the warp.  By the time I'd finished the third one, I had quite a bit of warp left.  I wasn't sure if I had enough for a fourth towels, so I made a smallish hem at the beginning.  It was nerve-wracking, but indeed, I had enough warp for the fourth towel!

Squeaking Out a Fourth Towel

As you can see, I was pretty much out of room to work, but I did it and that's what counts!

I like ripsmatta so much that I decided to warp a second set of towels onto the loom.  I've wanted to make these Southwestern Mission-inspired towels for some time.  They're in one of the 2002 editions of Handwoven magazine.  I ordered the thread for them at the same time I ordered the thread to finish up the last of Cassie's towels.  After Gypsea's towels came off the loom, I got the Mission towels on.  Here's the beginning of the first towel on the loom.

Mission Towels on the Loom

These almost look better if you look at them upside down.  Anyway, I'm very pleased with how they're turning out. Now that I understand how they work, I think I'll play with the treadling pattern and see what happens!

This is just a short post.  But I also want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas!

Towels for a Sailboat

The last set of waffle weave towels are off the loom, waiting to be finished.  I did, indeed, run out of the teal weft thread, and ordered more.  Just after I warped the ripsmatta towels onto the Glimakra, I realized that I had the same teal thread in the kit I wanted to weave for the boat's towels.  I had plenty to use for the boat towels and still finish my daughter's towels.  So I did.  I had enough warp left on her towels to weave fabric for matching potholders.  Now, of course, it's a search to find the heat resistant fabric for the backing, but I think I've found a source.

Old time weavers would save warping time by tying a new warp to the end of the old warp and pull the new threads through the heddles and reed.  This only works, of course, if you're doing the same weave.  Since the new towels are exactly the same structure as the old ones, the pull-through technique was at least viable.  The modern version of this technique is how many people thread their sergers.  Tie new threads to the end of the old threads and pull them through!  Well, tying four or five threads isn't that big a deal.  Tying well over 400 is a bit more daunting.  But I persevered and I think it did save some time.  Anyway, I have a very nice warp.

Gypsea's Towel #1 - Lavender weft

Here's the first towel in-progress.  I finished this one today and started the second towel, which uses the darker blue in the middle of the stripe.  I'm liking how it's turning out.  The third towel technically uses the white as the weft, but I'm not sure I'm going to like it.  I'm considering using the teal of the warp.  I have a full cone of it, so there's plenty of yarn there.  We'll see!

In the meantime, this is a fun structure to weave.  It goes quickly, and with my new end-feed shuttle, quite smoothly as well.  Gypsea will have herself some handwoven towels soon!

Weaving Something New

Ripsmatta Towels

Sometimes things just don't always go the way you want.  I've had Custom Woven Interiors, a weaving book by Kelly Marshall, for several months.  All the projects in it are in a structure, ripsmatta or rep weave, that I've never tried before.  All the projects except this one are for some kind of interior design fabrics; rugs, upholstery fabric, what have you.  I've never done any of the above.  But the thing that really grabbed me about this book was the use of color.  I fell for these towels because of the colors and subtle patterning created by the color play.  I thought these towels would be a good place to begin this exploration.

I ordered the thread for the towels at the beginning of September.  However, I really wanted to get the Dog off the Loom (see last post) before starting anything else.  And then I really wanted to get my daughter's towels done before starting anything else.  Sadly, I ran out of the teal weft thread I was using for the last of the three towels.  I've ordered more, but it'll be later this week before the thread arrives... and there may be dye lot color problems.  Yikes!  So I decided it was time.  Get these towels on the loom!

My first challenge was simply understanding how the drafts in the book worked.  I made it harder on myself by overthinking it, but I really think that some experience with ripsmatta would be helpful before tackling this book.  I tried several times to make it work in my weaving software.  Finally, it made sense to me and I got it into the software.  However, there was still this niggly feeling that I'd done something wrong.  I figured, though, that I'd never learn until I got the warp on the loom and started weaving.

Last week saw me setting up two more shafts on the loom and getting them into the new countermarche system.  I wound the warp on Friday evening and finished it off Saturday.  I had some problems coming up with a way to wind the warp.  The colors change with every thread and most times there are four colors alternating.  I really wasn't willing to wind four threads at a time.  I ended up by winding one layer of warp in one bout and then a second bout of the second layer.  It worked quite well on the board, but not so well at the loom.  It tangled more than I've had a warp tangle in a while, but it wasn't bad.

Saturday was a marathon session at the loom.  I got the warp sleyed, threaded and beamed onto the loom.  I have to admit, it looked good.  There are few things that make me smile like a nice warp on the loom!

Nice warp on the loom

 
I got the weft thread wound onto bobbins for two shuttles.  I sat at the loom.  Okay, weaving the hem for the towels wasn't all that big a deal, but when the pattern weaving started I just wasn't sure.  For one thing, warp threads started breaking.  First one, then four more, then two after that.  Seven broken threads inside a foot of weaving??  Scary!  I sometimes missed locking the warp threads at the selvedges and had warp floats.  Sigh.  I wasn't sure how hard to beat and no matter how hard I beat, I could always see some weft threads.

After broken thread number seven, I gave up and went to bed.  Today, I'm more at peace with it.  I think that at this density, the weft threads aren't hidden.  The weaving is what it is.  And, quite frankly, I think it's really pretty!  I'm looking forward to trying more projects from this book.

Although I'll probably choose different colors!