G'day everyone, Ian Fieggen here,
also known as “Professor Shoelace”.
Today's video is
how to tie the continuous loop drawstrings
that you sometimes see on “sweatpants” or
“tracky daks” as we call them in Australia.
Now, unlike regular drawstrings that have
two separate ends to work with, and which most people
just use their regular shoelace knot,
these are complicated by the fact that
the ends are looped together.
So we need a slightly modified technique.
Now my hint is to
pretend that you've got the two loose “ends”
and just leave all of that draped out of the way.
So, I begin by
crossing my left “end” over the right “end”,
tucking it, and pulling tight.
Now, before I pull completely tight,
I'll show you where we're up to.
We've got our “Starting Knot”,
we've got what's effectively the two loose ends,
and those ends join together in the middle of the knot.
I'm going to ignore all of that bottom section
and just focus on the top section.
I'll grab what's effectively the two loose ends
and pull tight to tighten the “Starting Knot”.
Now, most people would create one loop
and wrap the other end around and pull through.
Now, what I'm creating that loop with –
– I'm not using the whole loop,
half of it is still draped out of the way there.
Similarly, the “end” that I'm wrapping around –
– I'm not wrapping this whole thing around,
I'm just using that top part,
which is the equivalent of the loose end.
So we wrap it around
and pull through like a regular shoelace knot
and it forms a regular bow,
except instead of the loose ends,
those loose ends wrap around in a figure “8”
or an infinity “∞” symbol
and join together underneath the knot.
Now, ignoring that bit under the knot,
it's this bit – these opposite ends –
– that are the bits that we pull to loosen the knot.
So we've got effectively a “Standard Shoelace Knot”
except for the ... bit that feeds under the knot.
Other people use what we call the “Two Loop Knot”.
Again, not created with the whole of the two loops,
only with those top sections.
Cross the loops, feed one through, pull tight.
Same thing.
Could instead use my “Ian's Knot”,
the world's fastest shoelace knot.
But, what I'm going to show you here is
a version of my “Ian's Secure Shoelace Knot”.
And I'll start at the beginning.
Begin with the two “loose ends”.
Leave all that just draped out of the way.
Cross the left end over the right end –
– so that's the left over the right –
– tuck ... and pull tight,
pull everything else out of the way.
Now I'm still holding onto these parts here.
Form two loops,
cross the right loop ... over the left loop.
And we'll take this end here –
– end of the loop, which is now on the right.
Tuck that round the front
and through the hole in the middle.
Take the left loop, tuck it round the back
through the hole in the middle.
And holding onto the ends of both loops
we just pull tight.
What we end up with is this nice secure
double-wrap around the middle.
As I pull the knot tighter
you'll see that the
part that goes under the knot,
that sort of figure “8” or infinity “∞”,
gets smaller and you can adjust that
to any size you like –
– you can make it the same size,
you can make this smaller,
or you can leave those loops smaller.
Either way you end up with a very secure knot
that you once again pull these parts of the
infinity “∞” to loosen the knot.
I'll show it to you once more from start to finish.
Create two “loose ends”.
Left end over the right end,
tuck, and pull tight.
Create two loops,
right loop over the left loop –
– it's important to do this
the opposite way of the “Starting Knot”
in order for the finished result to be secure.
And tuck both loops
through the hole in the middle from opposite sides
and pull tight and adjust
to however you like it.
So that's the “Ian's Secure Shoelace Knot”
adapted for sweatpants or ...
continuous loop drawstrings.
If you want more information about the
“Ian's Secure Shoelace Knot”
or about twenty other different shoelace knots,
you can go to Ian's Shoelace Site: www.fieggen.com/shoelace
Thanks for watching – and enjoy the knot!