Silver How

Our last day at Ambleside dawned bright and sunny, so we were determined not to waste the day.  For some reason, going for a long walk now seems like a totally valid way to spend the day  - it even seems like the only way to make the most of good weather.  I think this must be a reaction to all those Septembers when lovely weather meant noses to the grindstone, not emerging until the best of the day was past.

We started from Grasmere, up past Allen Bank, and on to Silver How.  A youth passed us, listening to his MP3.  Strangely, he soon passed us again, on his way down, commenting that it was a bit slippery.  Of course, he was wearing shoes without cleated soles. 

 

From the top we were delighted to be able to see seven bodies of water, starting with Grasmere and Rydal Water. 

So, what knitting was done on this trip? This probably looks a lot like deja vu, because I am still turning out baby jackets for Pine Ridge.  One on the ten hour journey north - we had some traffic jams -

And one on the way back:

A variation done in the middle:

And a hat and mitts just for a change:

An Aran weight Sophisticate:

One last cardi, knitted by a dear friend from my knitting group for the same cause - inspired choice of buttons:

 

Ouch!

We are generally fair weather walkers.  We really like to see a view from the top, so we don't set off if there is mist -  certainly not in rain.  However, with a fine morning and a forecast of patchy showers, we decided to attempt Holme Fell.

The route took us first past this colourful display, along a minor road.  Sheep were being treated for something at a farm along the way.

 

We climbed up the fell, congratulating ourselves on a dry walk.  At the summit, the shower arrived.  We took shelter under a crag and were able to watch these spectacular light displays.

Rain set in more heavily, so that we ate lunch by a tarn, standing up.  Then we tried to find a direct route down, but there were many tracks and some boggy ground to avoid.  We came down through bracken, reaching a slate wall, collapsed in several places.  It was not a path, but others had walked there, and we knew that if we followed the wall we would reach the main track across the field.

Suddenly, I felt the ground move rapidly towards me. I landed on a pile of slate debris, on both hands and my right shin.  My goodness, but it stung!  If you are going to fall, slate is not a good choice of landing material.   My main concern, of course, was to be able to walk back to the car, and this proved possible.  I had a gash on one palm and a huge swelling on my shin, which resolved itself into a bruise the size of a saucer, but otherwise no harm was done.

We were able to have tea in Coniston to gather our wits.  We visited the churchyard where stands John Ruskin's wonderful memorial cross.

Great Langdale

A few miles from our rented cottage lay the valley of Great Langdale, including the settlement of Chapel Stile.  This village reveals very clearly that the central Lake district was once not just a base for Wainwright enthusiasts and trippers, but a serious industrial workplace.  Strung along the valley are these little rows of quarrymen's cottages.

Our walk began by crossing the working yard of a quarry still processing slate for paving-stones and road materials.  All day we could hear the work proceeding.

Soon the path rose, into more classic scenery, with tempting glimpses of the Langdale Pikes.  We were aiming for Lingmoor Fell and its summit, Brown How.

Striding across the landscape are the drystone walls, such a feature of the Lake District and sometimes in improbable places.

From the more moderate summit where we ate lunch, sheltering from the stiff breeze, we had a wonderful view of the Pikes.

 On the only thoroughly wet day we visited the Armitt Museum in Ambleside.   The town itself is over-run with trippers but the exhibition showed us a new side of Beatrix Potter, who was a serious student of fungi.  The exhibition featured some of her exquisite drawings.

This is the famous bridge house in Ambleside.

Grasmere

It's many years since we last visited Dove cottage and the Wordsworth museum.  Friends had kindly given us Art Fund cards recently, allowing us free entry to all sorts of interesting places, so we planned visits on the damp mornings we had.

On our guided tour of the little house we were struck again by the stone flags and pegged mats downstairs, while upstairs it was all more genteel. A woman in our tour group felt that Dorothy had had a raw deal: why had she not inherited money, or been allowed to live independently?  One thinks of households in Jane Austen's novels where single women had different expectations to today.  Did Dorothy really think it drudgery to copy out Wordsworth's poems?

In the gift-shop, a gruesome and inexplicable offering: bags of gummy sweets like false teeth.  The current exhibition features Wordsworth's reactions to Waterloo and Napoleon.  He had visited the battle-fields with Dorothy some five years after the event.  "Little was to be seen, but much was to be felt," she recorded in her journal.


But there, in the exhibition were the teeth.  Apparently, in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the main source of false teeth was the battle-field.  Teeth pulled from the corpses at Waterloo supplied dentists for years to come.  The toothless preferred the teeth of "ploughboys" who had died for their country to those of disinterred criminals.  Pretty macabre, eh?


From a base outside Grasmere we were able to walk along Loughrigg terraces and then climb up on to Loughrigg Fell, the first of several climbs offering wonderful views.

Dunmail Raise, rising out of Grasmere.

Mixed woodland, just beginning its turn to autumn colours.

The unmistakable Langdale Pikes.

Analgesia and exercise

Two weeks ago, working on our allotment, I ricked my back pretty badly.  We had collected nine bags of FYM, and while my husband barrowed them down to the plot, I upended each one to spread on the onion patch.  Somewhere during this process I wrenched a muscle in my lower back. After I had sat for any length of time, I simply could not straighten up.   It was the kind of thing where you find out what being eighty-five will be like, and also realise how close that day now is.

All the more tiresome as we had booked a week in a cottage near Ambleside, for some extended walking before the weather closes in.

However.... After a week I realised that a dose of ibuprofen first thing settled the pain, and then it was sitting,  not walking, which caused problems.

 We began by lunching at Blackwell, on Lake Windermere.  A party of older people were visiting.  One lady sat in that glorious white drawing-room, with its unrivalled views, and commented on how unjust it was that some had money to spend on holiday homes like this in 1900, while others did not know where their next meal was coming from.  This is certainly true, but not what most visitors think while there.  Most of us would just like to live there ourselves.

The next day took us to Brantwood, home of John Ruskin, overlooking Lake Coniston.   On the lake, the steam gondola plies its trade, very Edwardian - but, in fact, Coniston is most known for its use by the Campbells for the speed records in "Bluebird" - and that terrible crash.

Brantwood is another house with fabulous mountain views, this time of the Old Man of Coniston.

And, up behind the house, acres of garden.

Later, the weather having cleared, we walked around Tarn Hows,

On the way, we noticed this odd fallen tree-trunk.  These are not bark-scales but coins, wedged into the cracks in the wood. We saw several like this on this trip, something we have never come across before.

Baby Sophisticate

Yes, unusual name for a pattern, but quite appropriate.  This one has proved less versatile, for me.  However, it's a great way to learn some new skills, and it is really quick to knit.  Designed by Linden Down, it's a free pattern on Ravelry.

It's in an Aran weight, and can be done in two day's knitting time - less than five hours.

You start at the top and knit down, increasing for the raglan sleeves as you go.  Then you set stitches aside for the sleeves and knit down the body.

You can adapt the stocking stitch to a textured stitch.

Once you have done the sleeves, you pick up for the front bands and collar, using wrap and turn short rows.  It's really easy and the collar sits beautifully.  I like to do the cast off row in a contrast, to look like the braid on a blazer.

Stitch on four buttons and you are done.

Gidday Baby

 

Gidday Baby is a very versatile pattern, designed by Georgie Hallam and available for free on Ravelry.  I've knitted it twenty-five times.  This is an early version, using an alternate stripe in the yoke. You start at the neckline and knit the yoke, then leave stitches for the sleeves and knit the body.  Once you have done the sleeves on dpns, all you have to do is stitch on the two buttons: there is no seaming.

 

This second version shows what can be done with a few scraps of a  novelty yarn with little flags of colour.  The mauve was from a cone left in the scrap bin at my knitting group and I used it double to give it some body.

If, however, you knit the yoke all in one colour, pattern can be used as borders.  One of these is knitted top-down, as usual, and the other from the bottom up.  You know that you have mastered a pattern when you can knit it upside down.

Here, the border comes below the yoke.  I thought that this was very successful, but in fact I was just using up the remainders of the two other little cardis.

A very different effect - but the same pattern.  The only problem here is the running in of all the ends.

Two contrasting versions - this is the back.

 

And a pretty one, again using scraps of variegated yarn.

 

It's a great pattern.