Measure a sample you can use again

A sample is useful twice: first when you inspect the cloth, then when you plan the next project. Label the yarn, structure, sett, and finishing method so your measurements still mean something later.

Record three different lengths

Record the marked cloth span on the loom, the same span after release, and the same span after washing and drying. Keep the sample relaxed when measuring finished cloth. For the planner’s length-loss field, compare on-loom cloth with finished cloth. That comparison includes dimensional change between those two states.

Warp yarn consumption is a different measurement. If you measure how much straight warp yarn was used to produce a marked on-loom cloth length, the extra over that cloth length becomes the warp take-up input. Do not insert a yarn-to-finished ratio into the cloth-loss field and then add that same take-up again.

Measure width separately

Record body width in the reed and finished body width. A length percentage is not automatically a width percentage. Draw-in and finishing can affect the two directions differently.

Use the shrinkage calculator once for each direction. Gist’s sample-ratio method explains why starting size divided by finished size is the useful planning multiplier.

Keep the context

A sample from one yarn, sett, or washing process is not a universal constant. Record the actual yarn labels and finishing method, attach a swatch, and note whether the resulting cloth met your goal. The free sample card gives those notes a consistent home.

Ready to use your measurements? Open the weaving planner.