I think you're being downvoted because the title of the post is The "Granny Knot", and your wording sounds like you're saying Ian claims he invented the "Granny Knot".

But obviously you're talking about the "Ian knot". My wife taught me this knot about 20 years ago. She grew up in China and had been tying her shoelaces this way since primary school.

Ian claims to have invented the knot in 1982. Now it's conceivable that the "Ian knot" took the world by storm and spreaded to China quickly, but seeing it's the pre-Internet era, I highly doubt it. I myself had never heard of it until I saw her do it.

So it's likely Ian independently discovered the knot, more so than him being the first person to ever come up with it.

Did you come up with this knot yourself 45 years ago, or did you learn it from someone else?

BTW I upvoted you.