Knotted lace

A while back - like a few months ago - I thought of picking up knotted lace again.  I am so inspired to make beautiful knotted lace flowers, but I need a lot more practice with knotted lace before I can even think of making them! 

I know how to make the basic knots, but tension is still a huge problem.  Rather than making small samples that would turn out really ugly due to uneven tension, I decided to practice just making the basic loops.  

The photo above is how far I have gotten.  The idea is really simple - rows of basic loops and then build upon that.  It's hard to see in the scan, but the foundation is a piece of ribbon a few inches long.

I have noticed in the past that my basic loops are in fairly decent shape tension-wise, but things fall apart when I start making large loops and picots.  That is what I am working on now.  Or at least, that is what I had started a few months ago right after I scanned this.  I should pick it up again!

I now wish I had started with finer thread.  In this practice piece I am still using DMC Cebelia No. 30, which I find very thick.  Eventually I want to move to size 80 thread.  Even though tension will most likely change when I move to finer thread, all this practice should still count for something.  At least that's the hope!