Craft Edge

I'm new to Inkscape and have been trying for the past hour to figure out how to make the shoelaces in this picture one solid line for cutting -- instead of them being in several pieces. I want them to have loops I could figure out how to do the autotrace, but not how to fill in the loops of the laces so they weren't so nasty looking when I open it with SCAL. Can anyone help me???

Thanks in advance!!!

Here is a quick one I have done for you. I ended up drawing the laces in inkscape.
For future refereance small images are not the best to trace. To test if the image is any good zoom in on it. It it is too pixelated, blurry, then it will not trace very well.
Cheers
Craig