>>ollyfg+(OP)
Perhaps he is the inventor of this knot in the same way I was the inventor of short division in grade school--I thought I had invented it since no one had taught it to me, but I had just rediscovered an existing technique. Since that was the way my dad learned how to tie his shoes from his father before Ian was born, I think the furthest one could say is Ian is _an_ inventor of this not, not _the_ inventor.
However, this website is really cool, and it does do a much better job of explaining than my frustrated attempts of "you just pull one loop through the other!"