Sprite Stitch Board!

I'm beginning to hate these more than French knots. I know how to do them, but every time I do them, they pull too much or something and just turn out as straight lines as opposed to the daisy-petal shape they're suppose to be. I know sometimes I pull too tight, but sometimes, I think I do everything right and they still look like crap.

Does anyone have any helpful hints or tricks that can help me out? I'm doing the detail work on my samurai and he has a crap ton of them, and I would rather not screw them all up. Thanks!

Think about it like this. It not about pulling, its about laying. You're not really pulling the thread to the position you want, but you are creating a hoop you like, then laying it down and tacking it down. So, I create my hoop, push it over with my finger, and adjust it to the size I want. Once it looks about right, then I do the second stitch to tack it down. That way, there's really no pulling involved and therefore it doesn't get out of whack.