Learning to tie my shoes

Finally, at the age of 47, I have learned to tie my shoes.  No, really tie my shoes.

Last Thursday (4 days ago), I reached down and tied my shoes again.  I wear boat shoes so I can slip them on and off, but still they tie, ideally, not often.  I have to tie my shoes every hour.

At that point the light bulb went off:  I remembered reading on the great Animated Knots by Grog site that the shoelace knot is a square knot.  Now, I had never given any thought to my shoelace knot.  I just tied it when it needed it, but now I am tired of tying them every hour.  So I examined my shoes.

Granny knots!  Ugh!

No wonder they constantly came untied, and every bow I tied was twisted and ugly.  Now to figure out how to fix it.

Simple.  I tied my shoe, and paid attention to the start.  It was a granny knot this time.  Then I tied it again, pausing to reverse the start (the lace on top becomes the lace on the bottom).  Bingo!  Square knot.  I tied both shoes.

So why am I posting this on Monday, 4 days later?  Because this is the first time since then I retied my shoes.

For more info, see the Grog's site, or Ian's Shoelace Site by Ian Fieggen.  There you will learn about far more than knots.

Kindergarten teachers - make your life easier.  Learn this knot the right way so that the 1 or 2 kids in your class without velcro clasp shoes won't need you to tie their shoes more than once a day.