Loom waste guide

Measure loom waste before it surprises your warp

Loom waste is the warp length that cannot become finished cloth. It depends on your loom, tie-on method, sampling, fringe, and how close you can weave to the end.

What counts as loom waste?

Include front tie-on, spreading waste, back tie-on, distance from apron rod to fell, and any warp you cannot weave because the shed is no longer clean.

How to measure your loom

  1. Warp and weave a normal project.
  2. When you finish, measure the unwoven warp at the front and back separately.
  3. Record the loom, tie-on method, and total waste.
  4. Save that number as a loom profile in the calculator.

Save a loom profile

Starting defaults

Use conservative defaults until you have your own data: about 24-30 inches for many rigid heddle projects and about 30-36 inches for many table or floor loom projects. Your equipment may differ.