To be young

There hasn't been as much knitting going on at Clover Field as I would like. I blame the Twilight series. With some luck, the last book will move to my "read" bookshelf tonight and knitting can resume with it's normal voracity. The lack of knitting greatly impacts my Cold Sheeping goal of knitting through 8000 yards this year, which means I'm going to have to either knit faster or convince my family that my time helping out with household chores is really unnecessary and better spent on the sofa with yarn and needles in hand. Since the likelihood of being let of the hook with choirs is low, I better start speed training. Another option is to get on a project with requiring a lot of conference calls. Then, I can use my knitting to tame my need for multitasking while on a call.

Granted, Twilight wasn't the only thing competing for knitting time. The warming weather and chirping birds signals the return of fishing season. We stole way for the weekend and hit the river. Although fishing was a bit slow for me, Smallish Clover manage to have a very good weekend. Not only did he luck out with quantity, but he also hooked and landed a very good quality fish.

From 2011 Fly Fishing February

The children's only stream is a curse and a blessing. Although Italian and I are overjoyed with Smallish Clover's success on the river, we are slightly jealous we can't have the experience ourselves. Clover targeted this beast and we watched as the fly floated towards the whale. Then, with held breath, we watched as the fish opened to take the fly, and Clover set the hook perfectly. As always, we released the fish, exhilarated to see it swim away.

From 2011 Fly Fishing February

It was worth giving up the knitting time to have this moment.

Westward Bound

My laptop desktop photo at work is of the South Platte river winding through Spinney Mountain Ranch. It's my happy place and when work gets a tad bit too stressful, I look at the picture. This weekend, for Little Clover's fall break, we actually went back Spinney. The moment I stepped off the plane, I felt as if I was home.

We found the Bear Creek Cabins and booked one for the weekend. The cabin was small and cozy with a fireplace. As soon as we arrived, we had our first daily encounter with the wildlife. A mama elk and her baby meandered their way through the cabins grazing as they went.

From Colorado 2010

Little Clover was busy pulling trout out of the creek in front of the cabin, but he paused long enough to admire the elk. That night as we drifted off with a crackling fire and cool mountain air carrying the babbling of the creek through our open windows, Little Clover admitted he liked Colorado. With some luck, I'll get him hooked.

The next two days, we woke up before dawn to drive out to Spinney. Little Clover slept in the back and Italian and I watched the sun creep over the mountain tops. Spinney proved to be tough fishing the two days, but we all managed to hook into some great fish and I even managed to land my first big trout.

From Colorado 2010

This was a redemption moment for me. Not only had I lost several decent sized fish that day, but I had also managed to hook myself in the a$$ with a very teeny tiny fly, only to discover I could not remove said fly on my own and had to ask for help, from our guide. He was a very good sport about it.

Not only was Little Clover a great fisherman and a great sport while fishing a very technical and challenging stream, he proved he's also a great photographer with an eye for beauty. He snapped this shot through the car window as we drove through the mountains.

From Colorado 2010

We treated him to a Coney Island hot dog because no trip is complete without a stop to this little place. Italian enjoyed the buffalo dog while I noshed away on an jalepeno elk dog. I even gave a couple of guys a chuckle while I stood by their truck to take a picture of the restaurant.

After our two days of fishing, the rest of the trip was Little Clover's. He jumped at the opportunity to attend a murder mystery dinner at the Adams Mystery Playhouse. We were expecting it to be enjoyable. We were not expecting to have our cheeks and sides in pain from laughing as hard as we did! If you are ever in the Denver area and enjoy comedy theatre, go and go quickly! The experience was fanatastic and Little Clover even had a small encounter with the detective during the show. We are still quoting lines and will go again during our next trip.

Little Clover also wanted to see the Buffalo Bill Museum and Denver Zoo. We happily obliged and admired the view from the top of Denver's Lookout Mountain.

From Colorado 2010

Between all the hustle and bustle of the trip, I even managed to snag some knitting time on my Versatility, listening to the creek. The bamboo is my own handspun and I can see how I've grown as a spinner since I spun it. It is soft and rustic and warms my heart. If we ever make living in Colorado a reality, I think it will work well for early fall.

The farmer's life

From Irish Clover

We attended a canoe trip outing with our fly fishing club this weekend, and Little Clover even manned the canoe giving me time between white knuckled gripped rides down riffles to fish every now and then. The weather was beautiful and the scenery breathtaking, solidifying my desire to be further away from the city and to find a retreat on a nice expanse of land near a river.

The pull towards land has been strengthened not just by my fly fishing hobby, but by my knitting hobby as well. Most knitters will toy with the idea of spinning. Once you've fallen in love with yarn and all its wonderfulness, you may find yourself touched by curiosity around the making of yarn. Some people will cross over and actually become spinners, and spinners will almost always have at least one fantasy of owning sheep. Being a spinner, I've had this fantasy. Mine includes several sheep, a few bunnies, and at least one alpaca. This week, I got a small taste of my idyllic pastoral dream.

While at the stables for Little Clover’s weekly riding lesson, I offered to help Mr. Soprano with the horses. He grabbed a halter and lead rope to bring one in from the pasture and I grabbed another. A few minutes later, as I was strolling through the wrong pasture, I heard him call my name. I ran out of the pasture towards where I was supposed to be only to find a horse running at a gallop directly towards me. I held up my hands and said "Whoa!" The horse proceeded to run right past me. I turned and proceeded to run after the horse. At this time, I thought, “Thank goodness I changed out of my heels.” This thought was followed by, “Thank goodness I was lazy and didn’t put on my Wellies,” which was then capped with, “Oh my god, I am soooo out of shape.” The much more appropriate, “How the heck are we going to wrangle up the horses?” finally found its way into my thoughts. After 15 minutes of chasing and wrestling horses (yes, I did my darnedest to wrestle a horse, albeit a juvenile one), we finally managed to enclose the horses into a barn and get them roped up.

After this little taste of farm life, I’m perfectly content getting my yarn the old fashion way, online or at a yarn store.

From WIPs

Above is the Tudor Grace scarf pattern. I’m knitting it with my own handspun, which impressed Italian. He asked how I got the yarn to stripe, and I really wished I had an intelligent answer instead of the “I have no idea” I gave him.

On the range

This weekend, I discovered the truisms of some of the songs I learned in grade school. Italian and I ventured out to Colorado to celebrate our 10 wedding anniversary and during the trip, we found home. The West remains uniquely American and the Rockies were the most beautiful background to a remarkable trip.

For starters, we checked into the Highland Haven Inn, where a cute little cowboy duckie greeted us.

From Fly Fishing Colorado

Bear Creek, one of the many trout streams around Denver, not only ran directly through the town of Evergreen, but also ran through Highland Haven, making the place even more serene.

From Fly Fishing Colorado

On our first night in Evergreen, CO, right outside of Denver on the western side, we gazed in amazement at the purple mountains. When the sun sets, the fading beams hit the pinkish granite of the Rockies and the mountains are washed in purple which fades from a light lavendar to a deep rich purple. It was awesome in the purest sense of the word.

From Fly Fishing Colorado

After sleeping that night with the cool mountain air filling the room from the open window, we woke up to head to Cheesman Canyon, our first fly fishing destination. To get to the river, one must hike half a mile into the Canyon. At the top of the hike, we stopped to take in the view.

From Fly Fishing Colorado

The South Platte winds its way through the canyon and is punctuated with large bolders in many places.

From Fly Fishing Colorado

Those boulders you see are as tall as a person, and provided perfect places for hiding fish. Italian, landed the biggest of the day.

From Fly Fishing Colorado

All of the trout we caught were wild trout, so they fought with a gusto and zeal hatchery trout just don't possess. Occasionally, they would take us on long walks along the river as we worked hard to land them. The majority of the streams in this area are also catch and release, which means that each of the fish are returned to grow bigger.

While at Cheesman, I did put my pole down a couple of times to capture a few sights.

Denver was experiencing a swarm of ladybugs.

From Fly Fishing Colorado

The wildflowers were beautiful.

From Fly Fishing Colorado

From Fly Fishing Colorado

I also managed to catch a few trout.

From Fly Fishing Colorado

The second day, we decided to do something completely different, and our guide, Pat Dorsey, gave us the experience of fishing a meadow stream. Wow. Really, wow. The drive to Spinney was one of the most incredible drives. From Evergreen, we wend our way through the mountains, going higher and higher until we reached an elevation of 8600 ft. Towards the end of the mountain pass, we took a slight turn until the mountain on our left cleared to reveal an expansive prairie beneath us. Italian and I, who weren't saying much to beginning with as we took in the sights, both stopped breathing, gazed, and then exclaimed, "Wow!" There are no words to describe what we saw. We did immediately start singing "Home on the Range," though.

Fishing Spinney was quite different than fishing Cheesman. For starters, the scene is an expansive meadow of wildflowers and wild sage.

From Fly Fishing Colorado

Cutting through the meadow is another winding stream, punctuated every now and then by old farm buildings.

From Fly Fishing Colorado

The sky was cloudless when we first arrived, but as the day progressed, clouds began to build up and roll along the expansive blue above. Pat, our fishing guide, had an incredible knack for seeing the trout in the water and taught us how to fish in lots of different conditions. If you ever go fly fishing in the Denver area, call the Blue Quill Angler. Their guide service is top notch, stacked with friendly knowledgeable guides.

Finally, on the last day of fishing, we had the luxury of fishing the North Fork of the South Platte. Again, the view was picture perfect.

From Fly Fishing Colorado

The stream is nestled against the side of the mountain, with a bit of pairie on the other side.

From Fly Fishing Colorado

Pat again helped us land beautiful fish and his strike indicator really is the best one we've used.

From Fly Fishing Colorado

From Fly Fishing Colorado

At the end of the day, we couldn't pass up the opportunity to stop by the Coney Island hot dog stand, complete with boardwalk.

From Fly Fishing Colorado

The view we had while we ate our elk sausage dog only added to the wonderful flavor.

From Fly Fishing Colorado

Yep, we'll be going back soon.

From Fly Fishing Colorado

Not just for the boys

Last night, I had the pleasure of spending time with one of the world's premiere fly fisher and came to understand and appreciated that I was in the presence of a legend. My local fly fishing club brought in Lefty Kreh for the monthly meeting. Lefty shared some tips, showed us his favorite places to fish, and taught us how to cast. From a knitting perspective, spending time with Lefty is comparable to spending an afternoon with Elizabeth Zimmerman just knitting. From a cooking perspective, it's like being in the kitchen with James Peterson on a Saturday afternoon.

Lefty has fished with presidents, with fly fishing pioneers, with fishing leaders, with rock legends, with actors, and with several people he calls friends. He's written books, produced countless DVDs, and invented his own flies. He's personable, funny, and knowledgeable. He shares his wealth of knowledge with anyone who will absorb it and he conveys it with a twinkle in his eye. He is excited about you learning, which only makes you want to learn more. Meeting Lefty was special, but having Lefty teach me how to cast is an experience I'll always treasure. Casting with Lefty also made me realize that fly fishing is not just something I do with Italian and Little Clover anymore. Fly fishing is something I do. It is a skill I want to master, and why shouldn't I? Lefty said I could be really good, and I took that as a huge compliment.

Snow and trout

From Family

We finally had our annual snow day this past week. At least we didn't have to wait until March like last year. Granted, there wasn't much snow on the ground, but there was enough. Little Clover awoke early to the news of a school cancellation and waited patiently for us to give him the green light, to go outside and play. I'm fortunate enough to have a job with enough flexibility I could stay at home with him. I spent the majority of the day on conference calls, but during lunch, I did take some time to get in a little snowball fight.

From Family

Despite the small amount of snow on the ground, Little Clover managed to enjoy himself.

Snow Angel From Family

I wanted to have my latest knitting project finished in time for the snow day, but that didn't quite happen. Instead, I finished Cat Bordhi's Mobius Cowl early evening of our little snow day.

From 2009 FO

The pattern is quite easy to follow. I used Jade Sapphire's Cashmere to match the Koolhaas hat I knit last year. The hardest part of the pattern was knitting the first row after the cast on. My stitches were a bit loose, but I imagine everything will even out after a bit. One of my non-knitting coworkers asked if the twist was bothersome, and I honestly answered it wasn't. In fact, I rather like the twist of the mobius. It fits perfectly under my chin.

As if the new FO of 2009 and the snow day weren't enough, we added in an impromptu fishing trip to the week. A few rough weeks, professionally, were coming to an end and we needed a reprieve. Since our jobs didn't look as if they would provide any type of reprieve anytime soon, and our weekends quickly booked up with activity, we took advantage of the relatively open weekend, packed up our car, and headed to Arkansas for a quick weekend trip. Italian and I both had new rods needing to be broken in and we hit the river with gusto. I spent the morning fishing in the freezing temperatures. At one point, the ferrules on my rod, the small metal eyes through which one threads the fishing lines, froze solid with ice. The convertible gloves from October kept my hands warm enough to allow me to stay on the water. Eventually, Little Clover and Italian decided to join me on the water and we headed to a more wader friendly spot. Italian caught a fish on his first cast and Little Clover caught a fish on a fly he made up and tied. We all drove back home well rested and well fished, having a memorable day on the river.

From 2009 January Fly Fishing

Oh, and I just realized, today is my blogiversary. Thank you to everyone who's out there reading.

Scenery and belated birthday

From 2008 Nov Fly Fishing

There are several things I love about my small part of the US. For starters, when I went to the voting polling station, I was greated with a little party. I walked over to the table to sign in and said hello to one of my neighbors, then I walked to the table to hand over my sign in card, and was shocked to hear them exclaim, "Yay! You made it! Hooray!! The last one is here!" Evidently, Mrs. Soprano, The Godfather, Xavier Guy, and of course, Italian all came to vote before me. The voting volunteers were thrilled to find out we were all related and they kindly asked if I had gotten over my cold. They made this voting experience one of the most memorable and enjoyable.

Then, we spread our wings this weekend and ventured out a bit to another favorite spot of ours, the Arkansas Ozarks, for a little fishing trip. The river remained too high for Italian and I to fish, so we followed a local guide and world class fly fisher to a small stream dedicated for fishers under the age of 16. Little Clover received some one on one time with the guide and by the end of the day, was quite the little pro. Italian and I loved watching him cast and hook each fish and the thrill of seeing them zoom off after being released tickled us all.

Yes, that is a trout, a very large trout. From 2008 Nov Fly Fishing

We also got to watch the trout run, which basically entails seeing several fish jump head on into a waterfall as they try desperately to jump up the waterfall back to their birthplace to lay eggs. When a trout actually made it up the waterfall, we cheered with genuine excitement.

Trout jumping from 2008 Nov Fly Fishing

I did take the fingerless gloves out for the trip since the temperatures were in the 40s during the day. My hands and finger bases stayed nice and toasty warm, but my fingertips were chilled to the bone. I'll knit a cap to make these convertible mittens. While camping, I did work on a few Christmas ornaments for the annual Festival of Trees. An organizer for a local charity sounded the alarm with the knitting groups I belong to. She didn't have enough for the warm knits themed tree. Although five is not nearly as many as I would have liked to finish for her, I hope they help.

From 2008 Nov Fly Fishing

Finally, I need to wish Nana Clover a belated birthday. Her birthday was last Tuesday, election day, and she was a bit under the weather. She is a woman who brings joy to many and who lights my dad's soul. Nana Clover, I hope you are feeling better and have celebrated your birthday in a proper way. I wish you a year of good memories and a year of happiness. We send our love to you and lots of hugs to wrap around you whenever you need one. Each day we are grateful to have you.

A cabin in the woods

This weekend, we left for a cabin in the woods and had a much, much needed respite. Plus, I had to prove to our local fly fishing group that I really did exist and I really do fly fish. We decided to take an extra day on the river, so we packed up Thursday and hit the road for Mountain Home, Arkansas.

We woke up shockingly early Friday morning and decided to walk around the town in search of a coffeeshop. We didn't find the coffeeshop while on foot, but we did find a yarn shop. Of course, we stopped by. The Yarn Shop and More storefront wasn't slated to open for another 30 minutes, so Little Clover and I pressed our noses to the window to take a peak. Lo and behold, we saw the shop owner who graciously let us. I guess she could tell I was a knitter in need of a fix. She had a fair selection of sock yarns and was extremely friendly. I left with four balls of Jojoland Melody sock yarn. If you are ever in the Mountain Home area, stop by and see the shop. Bring cash though, she doesn't accept plastic.

After the little yarn detour, we headed towards the Blue Ribbon Fly Shop and Angler's Cafe to gear up and caffinate.

The Angler's Cafe makes a wonderful cappuccino. The owners are again extremely nice and the cafe is tailored to fly fishers. A fly tying table is on the ready in a corner, just in case you need to tie up a couple of flies before heading to the water. The drive through is also boat friendly, providing plenty of room for you and your boat. We loved the coffee enough to stop by the cafe twice. It was good.

After having our fill of coffee, we hit the water. Italian and Little Clover caught a fish almost right away.

I silently applauded and cheered! I was silent because I was on a conference call, while standing in the middle of a river, fly pole in one hand.

I guess, technology is a joy and a bane. Fortunately, the call only lasted 30 minutes, and I didn't have any other work obligations afterwards.

When the water finally came up, we trudged up to our cars and spent some time on Dry Run Creek, a fishing area restricted to fishers 16 and under. We did our best to help Little Clover catch a fish, but they were sneaky and elusive the first day. Finally, we headed to the cabin to check in and see our view.

Which was breathtaking. I spent plenty of time on this trip sitting out on the porch with a coffee or a beer, knitting and watching the river roll by. In fact, I spent enough time to finish the first sock and start on the second (pictures to come later).

The camp as a whole was a great place. The owners and their children live on site, so Little Clover spent some time playing with the kids. He also spent time following the chickens at the camp. He desperately wanted to hold one, but I don't think they ever let him get too close (smart chickens).


The next day was spent back out on the river with our fly fishing club. I had the pleasure of meeting two extraordinary fly fishing guides, and they introduced themselves as if they were regular people! I wonder if they know just how famous they are. At the end of the long day of fishing, I attended my first pig roast.

There is a pig behind the silver pot.

This was Italian's third pig roast which makes my Chicago born hubby more Southern than I am. The pig was from a local farmer and locally process, and yummy. Very yummy. We may not have caught a lot of fish on this trip, but as one of the guides stated, "It's called fishing, not catching." I definitely did catch up on relaxation and that was worth every fish that got away.

Pause

Life at Clover Field is stormy right now. Both Italian and I are adjusting to relatively new jobs and new projects and our work days are spilling into our personal evenings. In addition, we have had some rough times personally, as our families have experienced various hardships. We needed a change in scenery, so we packed up for a little fly fishing trip.

Now, for those who fly fish, you know the importance of the pause. It is the pause in the cast that allows the fly line to straighten and lengthen. When you cast, giving your fly line a slight tug as you raise the line out of the water gives the line enough resistance to pull out the slack and enough tension to extend and pull more line forward to cast further. The pause is when the line extends and straightens to its full potential. Without the pause, the line becomes a tangled unworkable mess.

I was rushing through the months without a pause and I was quickly becoming the tangled unworkable mess. The purpose of our little trip was not really to camp or to fish, those activities were an excuse for the trip. The purpose was to take a pause, to reconnect with family, and to find our center of peace. We spent the days standing in the middle of a large river watching the fish and the birds. We spent the evenings around a campfire as the sky darkened and then lightened with an infinite number of stars. We laughed as we told stories and running jokes. I even knitted and Little Clover caught his first fish on a fly rod. We paused and as a result, we straighten back out to our full potential.

We saw a very big walking stick bug right by our picnic table. Isn't it huge?