By: Blonde One
Yesterday was the first Ten Tors training of the season and a very strange thing happened…
We are used to our youngsters being pixie-led (lost) but the pixies this time found a new trick. They were continually untying shoe laces! A fair proportion of our day was spent waiting for someone to re-tie their laces. It was very peculiar. After the first few times I kept an eye on the lace-tying skills of the group and they all looked as if they were doing a good enough job but those laces just kept coming loose.
We considered all possibilities: were the group taking it in turns deliberately so that they could have a short rest?, were the offending laces all made of Vaseline coated cord?, did the youngster appear to have little experience in tying his own laces (we have had a young lady who had her very own personal lace tie-er before)? None of these theories seemed to be true, so the answer must be those pesky pixies!
Round laces seem to be the worst culprit for this in my experience. This post has just reminded me l need to replace my boot laces with the flat type.
That’s interesting. Most boots are sold with round laces. I will do a mini Blonde survey next time we’re out!
I don’t know about pixies, but here is my tip for making sure laces don’t come undone.
1. Tie the normal overhand knot.
2. Make the normal loop in one lace.
3 Instead of taking one turn round that loop with the other lace TAKE TWO TURNS and finish off as normal. The knot can be undone as usual by pulling one end.
The exception is walking through long grass or heather etc. when the ends of the laces can be pulled undone, but during other normal walking you will hardly ever suffer, and you may even begin to have doubts about pixies which would be sad, but sometimes sacrifices have to be made. If it leads to your team finishing well in the Ten Tors it will have been worth it.
I recently challenged my 3 Young Leaders to try this alternative lace tying method. They weren’t keen, but I think I will persevere!
Maybe it was the fairies trying to fashion a new lace bridge over the Swincombe!
I don’t think I would like to use that kind of bridge; I prefer something a bit more sturdy. It would almost be as bad as stepping stones!!!!
Carry out a boot inspection – what were they storing in there? (Apart from cheesy socks and feet, I mean?)
Never mind the Piskies, it could just be fashion fairies that are untying the laces. Someone was spotted setting off up the Hills today with no laces at all in her boots despite being offered brand new flat bootlaces and a lift. She had also forgotten her poppy but decided that the poppy police would not be up the Hills today.
Spray the laces with hairspray, it makes them slightly tacky and stops them coming undone.
Now that sounds like a perfect Blonde solution … plus it gives an excuse to be carrying hairspray around on Dartmoor!