foot.
Tying the lace is essentially the same in each case as far as the process is concerned, but different muscles are employed in holding you in place while you do the job. Tying someone else's shoe is another matter, of course, and in that instance you simply have to hunker down in some way to reach their laces to do the job.
If you are tying your own shoe, it begins by feeling lighter and emptier than usual. This is because the laces when tied will pull the shoe tighter around your foot, so it is much looser when you begin. At the beginning, the laces are loose, left that way from the last time you took off your shoe. When you take off your shoe, you pull the two side flaps apart in order to loosen the shoe so it will come off easily. This also loosens the laces so that the length is reduced at the top while the length of the loops through the different holes are extended.
Putting the shoe on and tying the lace involves reversing this earlier operation. When you first slide your foot into the shoe, as noted, the shoe is loose. Indeed
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