Fill your boots with these lace-tying methods
SIR – I suggest that Nicholas Crean (Letters, June 28), who finds that modern round laces come undone more readily than flat ones, adopt a change to his lace-tying technique.
Assuming that he is right-handed, I am surmising that after creating a loop of the right-hand lace he then crosses the loop with the left-hand lace by passing it over the top. If this is so, he should instead cross the right-hand loop of lace by passing the left-hand lace underneath, before bringing it forward to pass it back down between the laces to create the second loop of the bow.
Like any change, it will seem strange at first but will quickly feel quite natural. The reward: the laces will no longer undo themselves. Robert Roberts Summerhill, Wrexham
SIR – I can sympathise with Mr Crean. I have a pair of moccasin slippers with leather laces; the left lace regularly unties itself, while the right rarely does. Why? John Crouch Crowthorne, Berkshire
SIR – The excellent novel Sixteen Trees of the Somme, by Lars Mytting, describes the “Turquoise Turtlehead shoelace knot”.
I Googled it and have been using it for a month with good results. Dr Andrew Hamilton Dibden Purlieu, Hampshire
SIR – My father discovered the Blue Peter method while watching the television programme over tea.
The method advocated is to make two bows, then knot one round the other as if one was using the usual method. My father swore by this technique into his nineties. Judith Young Bristol
SIR – One method is to remove the laces and coat them in a shoe polish of one’s choice. Leave them overnight to dry (do not polish them), re-lace the shoes in the morning and step out with confidence.
Mr Crean may have to repeat this task every so often. Leslie Bolton Stockport, Cheshire