the.com/granny knot
The knot you tie when you mean well but slip the wrong way twice.
means A reef-knot gone wrong: a binding knot tied with both crossings the same way instead of opposite, leaving it prone to slipping or jamming.
from From "granny" used dismissively, the way sailors and craftsmen long labeled clumsy or amateur work as something a doddering grandmother might do — the contrast being the proper "reef" or "square" knot a competent hand would tie. The term is recorded in 19th-century nautical use, where "granny's knot" or "granny knot" marked the bungled version that a seaman would be ashamed to own.
- fatal flaw
- Slips and jams under load, worst of both
- one twist off
- Identical to reef knot but crossed wrong
- sailor's scorn
- Mariners use it as an insult
- shoelace culprit
- Likely why your laces keep coming undone
- the fix
- Reverse second cross to get a square knot