Knot

Monday, 9 July 2001
Breakfast is over. I slip on a shirt and pick a tie.

And damn, suddenly I can't remember how to knot a tie! This is bizarre. For years my fingers know the way, tie the knot blindly. It was an unconscious capability that degrades at this early morning hour to a conscious incapability!

And no matter how hard I try... I can't remember. Grr. I try and fumble around a bit, but my fingers refuse to do their job. This tie won't be a success. Try again, and again, and again.

In desperation I consult my own story of the 7th May. That's where I've included a link to a how-to-knot-a-tie-instruction.

So, what misery to access the internet via my own web site. I feel like a outdated cache, accessing the database layer for fresh information. And I don't even need fresh information. It's an old knot I'm looking for!

I try the four in hand and see: The part left over is too long. Hmm. So the four in hand was not the knot that I used myself. But which one then? It remains a mystery, so just tie a four in hand and off I go.

Every morning, day after day, I struggle with the knot. The old knot refuses to return. Why does the memory of my fingers fail on me? Why is it so difficult to find something in memory when you are looking for it so hard? The only thing tied up here is my own memory, grr.

Friday I don't have ties on my mind. Without thinking about it I knot a tie and look, I only have a short piece left over! Quickly I investigate the knot. Reverse engineering put into practice. Tralala, what an unexpected solution! I can't believe my luck.

Reader Sven van Geit from Belgium:
The name of this knot
is the Half Windsor.
I still don't know the name of this knot. Is it an official one? Anyway, my memory is untied. And just in case the knot slips out of my hands again:

step 1 step 2 step 3 step 4 step 5 step 6
1. An easy start. 2. Long crosses short. 3. Behind everything. 4. Circle the side of the long end, behind everything again. 5. In front of everything.

This piece will be the front of the knot later.

6. Circle the other side, get to the front from inside.

Below the front of step 5 and ready

This conscious capability does look quite complex, a kind of highway junction. It's no wonder that my fingers had a hard time.

Till next week,
Nut