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The “Granny Knot”

fieggen.com

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Re: The “Granny Knot”

#241

Post by rekabis »

This is a genuinely nifty article, in how it goes into clear and well-explained details.

With that said, sometimes it’s the fault of the shoelaces themselves. Loops that are too large (overly long shoelaces) can snag on items in the environment (twigs, branches, etc.) to become forcibly untied, and some very specific kinds of shoelaces can be too slick and/or too stiff to keep a knot firmly tied (Canadian DoD shoelaces for boots are both very stiff and quite slick when brand new, they need to be broken in to hold fast; some dress shoes have similar laces, albeit stupidly thin).

Re: The “Granny Knot”

#242

Post by fho »

iandinwoodie wrote: post #6

A few years ago I switched from the "Granny Knot" to the "Ian Knot" [0] in order to (1) eliminate the need for "double knotting" and (2) straighten the bow. Despite the few embarrassing times early in the process where friends observed me struggling to tie my shoes, I can confidently say the switch has been worth it. [0] https://www.fieggen.com/shoelace/ianknot.htm

Totally worth it!

And going from "Granny Knot" to "Ian Knot" is actually a lot simpler than relearning the correct way to tie the normal knot. I tried that first ... but relearning the exact same finger movements but mirrored was not possible for me.

I also use his "Secure Knot" [1] when hiking ... although my SO ridicules me for tying shoes with the bunny ears technique :-)

[1] https://www.fieggen.com/shoelace/secureknot.htm

Re: The “Granny Knot”

#243

Post by UIZealot »

drzhouq wrote: post #138

I learned this knot 45 years ago in China and passed the knot to my children. Not sure how Ivan can claim he invented the knot.

I think you're being downvoted because the title of the post is The "Granny Knot", and your wording sounds like you're saying Ian claims he invented the "Granny Knot".

But obviously you're talking about the "Ian knot". My wife taught me this knot about 20 years ago. She grew up in China and had been tying her shoelaces this way since primary school.

Ian claims to have invented the knot in 1982. Now it's conceivable that the "Ian knot" took the world by storm and spreaded to China quickly, but seeing it's the pre-Internet era, I highly doubt it. I myself had never heard of it until I saw her do it.

So it's likely Ian independently discovered the knot, more so than him being the first person to ever come up with it.

Did you come up with this knot yourself 45 years ago, or did you learn it from someone else?

BTW I upvoted you.

Re: The “Granny Knot”

#244

Post by dang »

nemo44x wrote: post #105

The word “granny knot” is ageist and offensive. I can’t believe I’m seeing it here. It also reenforces the idea that certain knots are “better” or “appropriate”, upholding and propagating white supremacy. We should rename this cultural atrocity and outdated term as “the people’s knot”.

From your other comments it's clear that you're trolling. If you troll HN like this again we will ban you.

Please stop posting ideological flamebait comments to HN generally. We've asked you repeatedly, and when accounts ignore such requests, we eventually ban them. I don't want to ban you because your good comments are good, but protecting the site from hellfire has to take precedence, so please stop that.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: The “Granny Knot”

#245

Post by waterhouse »

sdeframond wrote: post #219
mkesper wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Try to remember the finger movements.

Works well until you encounter a new keypad layout (eg when going abroad). I locked my card once like this although I had been typing the code for years before.

Android has this "draw a path through some dots in a grid" analogue to a PIN code. On the boot screen, the grid is a somewhat different size than on the unlock screen. This defeated my muscle memory, and my conscious memory had lost its backup.

Re: The “Granny Knot”

#246

Post by sjwright »

inanutshellus wrote: post #234
sjwright wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I never understood the need to fold bed sheets. Crinkled sheets simply aren’t a problem I’ve ever had; you barely notice the difference once they’re stretched over the bed and pillows. I have a blanket box at the end of the bed; I just shove the second set of sheets in straight out of the dryer. (I do fold sheets for the guest bed but that’s because the alternative set might spend months on the shelf. Most of the tim…

You fold them so you can stack them on other folded things. If they're messily folded, the pile falls over as you carry the basket upstairs, or stack other things onto them on your shelves.

For me bedsheets are their own wash cycle, so there’s nothing to stack them with. I just carry them upstairs and dump them into the blanket box when they're done. No need for a basket.

But let's say your washing process is different to mine. I'd still rather do two trips upstairs than fold sheets.

Re: The “Granny Knot”

#247

Post by CRConrad »

hultner wrote: post #74
qwnp wrote: post #5

The "Ian Knot"[0] (which, I just discovered, was invented by the author of that site) is quite possibly the coolest and fastest way to tie your shoes. [0] - https://www.fieggen.com/shoelace/ianknot.htm

I’m not sure if it was “invented” by the author, I’ve been doing the same knot for 30 years. We call it rå-bands-knop (raw-strings-knot would be a literal translation) and I believe most kids here learn it at an early age.

Råbandsknop is the same as square knot; granny knot (kärringknut) but the right way around. As shoelace knots, (rosetter) both are of course "slipped".

The "Ian knot" that people are discussing is neither square nor granny knot in and of itself, but how you make it: The technique of having a loose loop in each hand and "pulling both through each other", which is much faster than tbe "ordinary" ways of making each that he presents on each separate knot's page. Topologically it results in the exact same end result: Do it the right way around and you get a square knot; the wrong way, a granny knot.

A bit weird of the tomtenisse to link to that exact page of the site; granny knot / kärringknut is the absolute worst result you could end up with. The whole site is pretty much about how to avoid ending up with one. (OK, slight exaggeration there.)

Re: The “Granny Knot”

#248

Post by CRConrad »

fastball wrote: post #11
qwnp wrote: post #5

The "Ian Knot"[0] (which, I just discovered, was invented by the author of that site) is quite possibly the coolest and fastest way to tie your shoes. [0] - https://www.fieggen.com/shoelace/ianknot.htm

This is how I've been tying my shoes for a while and can recommend! Unfortunately I did not learn it from the inventor's website but rather from this site[1], which may be a total knockoff or may be a case of "parallel thinking". [1] https://freedomknot.com/

"Copyright © 2012 FreedomKnot"

Mr Fieggen's site is a lot older than that, so possibly "parallel thinking"... But because of the cutesy story, cheesy layout, and above all, "Freedom Fries!" name, I'll go with knock-off.

Re: The “Granny Knot”

#249

Post by nkurz »

ie21 wrote: post #220
Andrex wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your comment got me looking into the phenomenon, and I found this great article: https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-1994-07-17-19941981... From 1994!

Would love to read if anyone has it mirrored? Looks like the original article isn't available for EU market.

Maybe one of these two will work:

https://outline.com/SeEEHt

https://archive.is/D05nu

For the future, you can usually create these for yourself by going to top of the sites that I linked.

Re: The “Granny Knot”

#250

Post by sevsco »

Anything you do regularly or daily, it’s worth spending a few minutes to work on your form, sooner is better before the inconvenience becomes the norm.

I do this with shoe laces, more recently with my new bike lock. Was kind of weird and slow and clumsy for me to open and close, so I spent 5 minutes figuring out the feel of the key and the rotating mechanism and now I can do it quickly and easily with one hand (45s->10s).

It amazes me how people don’t slow down to figure out the little things. One of my ex-girlfriends would always struggle to unlock the door to our old apartment. It was a janky lock. Coming home late, drunk, in the cold, in the rain, and she’d sit there for 2-3 minutes getting frustrated trying to get it open. The first time I unlocked it I was like “oh, this lock sucks, let’s see how it opens”. You insert the key, but it goes too far - the cylinder won’t rotate unless the key is backed out about 1mm from where it bottoms out. So, just insert the key, and press on the lock with your pointer finger as you apply gentle torque and it’ll open easily. Takes less than 5s, every time. I tried to show her this and explain the process, but she didn’t have the patience - “I know how to open a lock!” So I let it rest.

Baffles me though, some people would rather spend 30m/week fiddling with something that 5 minutes of deliberate attention would solve once and for all.

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