Discussion summary

A video demonstrates a new method for tying gym shorts or drawstrings, sparking discussions about knots and tying techniques.

What the discussion says

  • Some users find the method interesting or useful.
  • Others comment on their difficulty with knots or tying skills.
  • A knot theorist shares a related video link.
“I can't seem to learn knots despite practicing.”
— dyauspitr
“Looks like the Ian Knot, seen on hackernews.”
— loco5niner

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  • Hacker News
  • This knot is not for me. I need my drawstrings to be permanently connected together, or else when I wash those shorts they frequently get pulled into the pants where I can't reach them, and it's a pain to fish them out again. And I can't remember to tie them together before each wash.
  • Only knot I know and I use it frequently: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowline

    Knots are incredibly situational which makes learning a lot of them (through practice) difficult.

  • I learned this knot from this video a while back -- I've used it ever since. It cinches the shorts tight, but is easy to release. It works especially well on strings that are slippery and don't hold a typical bow very well.

    One drawback is that the two ends often end up different lengths, but otherwise it's a great knot!

  • Super cool!

    Here is how to tie a bow in under 1 second in case anyone wants something that looks a bit cleaner but is less functional: https://m.youtube.com/shorts/Q5qZpQe_4EA

  • Per the video description, this is a Lapp Knot: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lapp_knot, sadly not animated by Grog.
  • Life is too short to make simple things more complicated.
  • Reminds me of the granny knot "advice" which I also saw on hackernews for the first time many years ago and which changed my live:

    https://www.fieggen.com/shoelace/grannyknot.htm

    If you don't know about this problem yet, I strongly recommend to cross check if you have been tying it wrong for years!

  • I did this for a while after seeing that video, but after some of my shorts ended up tightening into a knot that I couldn't get loose easily, I gave up on it.

    I instead just use the "Ian Knot" that I use to tie my shoes. It's very quick, I already use it all the time anyhow, and it rarely goes wrong. (Sometimes, I think I end up with an end through a loop accidentally, and have to fix it.)

    Learning this extra knot didn't really help much, and it definitely went wrong more than I liked.

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