the link you have there to tie-a-tie is what i learned the windsor from. the funny triangle knot you do... is it a half-windsor?

I believe in going all the way.

It's instruction 3 that throws me, too many steps in one.

step 3 is cake!

just take the tie that's sticking straight up, put it down to the side that it just came up from and put it back behind the knot.

you're not an engineer, are you?

Not an engineer, but it says it's not rocket science, so since I can't do it as instructed, I must be a rocket scientist.

Not even close. Step 3 talks of something going to the right (a little spatially weird as I am left handed and looking at a reverse image) and the diagram is going to the person's left with a weird set of dots that don't match the instructions. And use terms that dont exist, like loop and not when there is no loop or knot.

Not an engineer, but it says it's not rocket science, so since I can't do it as instructed, I must be a rocket scientist.

Not even close. Step 3 talks of something going to the right (a little spatially weird as I am left handed and looking at a reverse image) and the diagram is going to the person's left with a weird set of dots that don't match the instructions. And use terms that dont exist, like loop and knot when there is no loop or knot.

hmm... those were the exact instructions i learned from without any additional assistance while in tunisia. i actually accidentally learned how to tie the half-windsor after the fact by being hasty in my tie tying. also, since i'm ambidextrous in many aspects of life, i can tie the windsor either with a right or left bias (ie: mirror image of the instructions shown).

i suppose you aren't geographically near so i could just show in you in person...

This is a trick, isn't it? Not even close to working. Must find other instructions.

to quote Admiral Akbar, "ITS A TRAP!"

no tricks involved. just follow the photos and not the written instructions.

Ah, I think I got it.

This one worked.

Issues:

1 -- It didn't use left and right, which throws a lefty off, but dominant and nondominant.

2 -- I think I want a DOUBLE Windsor as the semi-successful Windsors/half-windsors looked crappy too, while the semi-successful first try Double Windsor looked close to what I wanted.

3 -- Didn't leave enough narrow-end slack.

4 -- In each place, photos/drawings didnt help.

5 -- Still same problem of using loop and knot before there are loops and knots.

one needs a significant tie to properly tie a double windsor knot that doesn't look ridiculous.

congrads on learning the windsor!

Not sure I got the Windsor and the double comes out differently each time.

Must master this.

patience, grasshopper. dubai wasn't built in a day.

OK Youtube and this guy rule!

The tightening maneuvers are really the touch.

Lefties are the only people in their right minds.

Ha! I never knew that the Windsor/"Double Windsor" was the "mark of a cad" (according to James Bond, no less). That was the way my dad taught me to tie a tie as a kid and I've been doing it ever since.

Another thing I used to do was to tie it so that the wide end was really long and the narrow end barely existent, so that it would hang down way past my belt. I found out recently that the French (in some century) used to set the length of the tie so that the tip of the tie met with the tip of the penis (at least allegedly ... naturally there was cheating).

So I must have been following in the footsteps of the french side of the family (who really are a bunch of cads) without even knowing it ... yikes!

The windsor, eh? A mere trifle. Take a look at this site . . .

http://www.krawattenknoten.info/krawatten/Krawattenknoten/tieknot.html

Though why anyone would want to use a "Prat" knot escapes me.

For those of us who are hopelessly clumsy, the site also features a helpful ebay ad that offers, "Tie knots. Browse a huge selection now. Find exactly what you want today."