Tuesday 24 July 2007

Teachers do it in the Holidays!

At last! ..... OK..... moan....mummble.....bloomin teachers.... all that holiday...... !!!!!! and yes, on the holiday front, we do OK. Yes we have no choice of dates, prices are sky high and yes, the weather WAS better in May but we teachers do relish & cherish our big hols. Mine started two days before the male part (not the dog -he is always on holiday) of the family, so yesterday the dog & I packed a picnic & set off to Fountains Abbey which is about 8 miles away. We wanted a walk that was fairly dry under paw & I thought we should make use of the National Trust membership which tends just to act as a season ticket to the car park at Brimham Rocks. We parked at the west gate. Still dry at this point, and then walked in past Fountains Hall to the Abbey itself. Its probably a couple of years since I have been to the Abbey so it was good to have a wander around again. Still dry! I then decided to walk towards the water garden & the deer park, thinking about finding a suitable picnic bench when this happened!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Rain, lots of it, coming down in 'stair rods'. The very large brolly was fast into action so I stayed dry & we headed to the trees, following a sign to 'Anne Boleyn's seat'. Up at the top of the hill & in the trees this proved to be a huge, dry, unoccupied open fronted summer house, with seats & views out in to the rain and back to Fountains Abbey. Dinner time! The floor was flagged so Moss could lie down in the dry and we spent a very pleasant half hour here. We eventually returned to the car as the rain stopped & returned home to knit, watch the cricket (robbed by the weather at the death! Shame!) ........... and do the ironing! I could get used to this life!
I have finished the first 'cable over yarn' sock in Regia Bamboo. I like the pattern & the yarn but the bind off (I have had another go at toe up construction) is less pleasing. I used a stretchy bind off recommended somewhere, which was OK for Mr J's woollen socks but I am not so sure that a heavy handed bit to blocking will deal with this. What do you think? It looks OK when worn but I know its not quite 'nice'!

7 comments:

sarah said...

My toe-up bind off (EZ's sewn bind off) always looks a bit like that to start with, but it seems to sort itself out over time. Someone on Ravelry recommended the tubular bind off. Montse Stanley's description of it makes no sense to me, but I'm hoping that http://www.savannahchik.com/2006/11/tubular_bindoff.htm will be more useful. I hope that URL works!

SueJ said...

Thanks Sarah. I have found & copied the instructions into word- all 5 pages- to print & study. The Montse Stanley book sounds quite a tome -do you reccomend it? Sue

Artis-Anne said...

Great photos of Fountains Abbey , sounds like you and Moss had a good day despite the rain.
Must read that tubular bind off that Sarah quoted

Joanne said...

I think loose bind-offs always look that way when the sock isn't being worn. It's the wearing of the sock that's really the test, right? Your walk at the abbey with the dog was like a vicarious vacation day for me. Thanks!

WJS said...

teachers do exactly what in the holidays?

im not so sure they do anything ;)

SueJ said...

Recover!

Dipsy Doodle said...

What a very beautiful and highly historical place Fountains Abbey must be - I'd so love to visit it myself one day and stroll through these old halls and gardens! Despite the rain, it seems you and Moss had such a great timne there - thanks for letting us join!
I think the bind off you did doesn't look bad at all, in the contrary - and as you said it looks okay when worn, you probably shouldn't worry too much about it - it's good as it is!