i know it’s easier to never attend black tie functions and when u have to to buy the ‘instant’ bow tie
but so is it a hell of a lot easier to have a second wheel, so that line of argument won’t fly around here
or at the shop where i bought the bow tie where the attendant admitted that in his 44 years in the ‘clothing game’ (not ‘-industry’, not ‘-retail’, ‘-game’), he’s never learnt how to tie a bow tie
which i find shocking to say the least and lazy to say somewhat more
anyway, i now have aforementioned bow tie and can’t quite get the hang of the knot
i’m about to embark on a google to try n find out but i thought if ever there was a body of people likely to have a large percentage of people who have insight into this arcane art, it would be the unicycling community
i strongly suspect that it’s a lot of practise but i can’t help but think that there’s a slight/sleight trick to it somewhere after u’ve folded the second half of the tie…
the bow tie version of ‘put your weight on the seat’
i have a mental list of people on these fora who i suspect are more likely to know
i’ll keep that to myself for now and tick them off as they respond
Dave, If I was in SA as opposed to in Canada I’d be able to give you a hand. It is, however, one of those things that is easier to demonstrate than describe. I suggest that you get Katy (assuming I’ve remembered the GF’s name right) to tie it for you as it is easier that way, especially if you don’t do this very often. The trick is to keep the bows loose until the last tightening tug so you can slip your fingers inside them to enure that they are of the same size and nice an even.
i’ve picked up the basics from the variety of different sites on the web all using the same set of graphics
i just need to make sure that i have the tie at the correct length and get that last lil knacky move under control and it should work
in theory
i’m sooo glad i’m not into bondage
i’ve asked KT and she claims to not have a clue
this is unusual and i’m leaving the office early to avoid the snowstorm
just got it!
and to celebrate, did it twice more
i know i’m supposed to be able to do it 10-times-in-a-row before i can take it out in public, but this is good enough for now
my problem turned out to have been with the first loop and not the second
i got the right place to loop the second thru a quite a while ago but didn’t know it cause it wouldn’t work, courtesy of the wrong first loop
here’s the link that got me the closest
(the shorter bit, that becomes the first loop, must ‘cross over’ the centre line of your shirt before doubling back to form that first loop.
in other words, if u start the proceedings with the tie draped around your neck and have the left hand side longer, that piece wraps over and around the other end to form the first basic knot, the shorter piece (now on your left) forms the first loop and that fold will be on your right hand side
the longer (wrapped around and knotted-) bit now drops over the front of the first loop to form the centre of the knot and the second loop (that u now form in the longer hanging bit) sticks thru the (almost but not quite non-existant) opening behind the fist loop but in front of the original ‘neck-band’
once u’re there, u’re home
it is just like tying your shoelaces, just with no place to tuck them in
I am currently in Banff, where I will be until the end of the week when I get to go to Calgary to catch a plane back to SA. I’m attending Geostats 2004 - I did my presentation yesterday (on behalf of my boss who couldn’t be here) and I included my juggling and unicycling in my biography. Hell - I have no PhD like all the other speakers seem to, and my intro got a much better response than theirs - at least people paid attention after that.
I’ve seen some cyclists but no unicyclists and was hoping to meet up with some of the Canadians but this trip was so last minute I didn’t have time to arrange anything.
Today was our free afternoon and we went up to Lake Louise to sightsee. They’d had some snow which is a BIG thing for me - we don’t get much snow in Jo’burg. We also went up to Moraine Lake, apparently a day before they close for the winter. The mind boggles!
i understood that and managed to tie it perfectly around my foot
if i was a contortionist i may have been able to slide it up to my neck
my problem was simply that doing a shoelace is such an automatic, ingrained activity, that i didn’t have enough of an understanding of it to be able to (easily) translate it from the horizontal- to the vertical plane
much like someone seeing u do a freemount and asking ‘how do u do that?’
(probably not the best analogy as most of us have spent some time explaining a freemount online, but u get the drift)
it was really kewl to be able to nonchalantly tie the bow tie over the girlfriends putting-on-make-up shoulder
and really irritating to be the ONLY guy there in black tie
(except for the auctioneer, and he was in white tie - show off)
