Backing up a step, I took a second to map the cord paths through the body of the single plafond knot. A square symbolizes what I consider to be the mass of the knot and letters mark the entrance and exit points. The two (sort of) directed graphs show the cord path THROUGH the knot and away from the knot.

I had my frame around 2 diamond centres, but I wanted the side structures to be balanced. Here’s a first sketch (sans-frame) with some cord paths. You can see that even by the bottom of the sketch I was giving up the idea that (1) my sketched paths were accurate or (2) that the sketched paths were useful. No doubt if I were a better draughter that would not be true, but…

So, I tied a sauvastika knot under the centre of the plafond knot while interlacing the side ears around the plafond frame, and then put the incoming and outgoing cords back through top and bottom frame parts. I have my double diamonds in their frame, but the sauvastika ears are not balanced. The knot is not properly symmetric across the major axes. I wasn’t expecting success at this juncture, but it’s close.

Taking a single plafond knot I started manipulating it to see where the spaces in it for alteration were. First pull out the side loops. This makes it more clear the macrame style square knot heritage of the plafond.

So, I was writing up the preamble to my instructions for the plafond knot and was thinking about how one might logically expand this knot. It has no ears and the usual construction methods are resolutely square, so the idea of making something not quadrilateral based seemed unlikely (although just typing that has given me a little bit of an idea… 8). But the idea still seemed worth pursuing. I knew that Lydia Chen had come up with 2 variations, but I had something else in mind.