Weaving can be done more efficiently if the length of weft you need is determined and prepared in advance.

In this article, I will show you how I measure to determine the length of weft needed.

This method is useful if you have created grid designs of your weavings in advance.

In this article, I will use a tulip sample introduced in a previous article “Mastering Plain and Tapestry Weaving with a Sample” to explain the following items:

1. Figuring out the number of cells in each weft from the grid
2. Knowing how many picks of weft are needed
3. Measuring the required length of weft

Let’s check to see how many cells are in the grid by weft color.

This grid design was created using Adobe Illustrator, which has a feature to count the number of objects. If you are designing with software that has such a feature, you can easily keep track of how many grid cells (rectangular objects) there are by color.

For more information on how to count grid cells in Illustrator, please refer to the following article:

How to Know the Weft Length in Advance Before Weaving

In the tulip sample grid, the number of grid cells (rectangles) for each color is as follows:

• Background green: 4,555
• A stem and leaves: 882
• White petal: 754
• Pink petal: 272
• Beige petal: 674

To calculate how many picks of weft are needed, divide the number of cells by the number of warp threads.

The sample is designed with 39 warp threads, so dividing by 39 gives the following quantities:

• Background green: 118 picks
• A stem and leaves: 23 picks
• White petal: 20 picks
• Pink petal: for 7 picks
• Beige petal: for 18 picks

Now that we know the number of weft picks for each color, we measure the length of each weft.

After warping on your loom, take the length of the weft for 5 picks, as shown in photos 1-5.

Now that we know the length of 5 picks, don’t cut the weft yet, double it to make the length for 10 picks.

Next, based on the length of 10 picks, double it for 20 picks, triple it for 30 picks, and so on.

The video shows how to take the amount of 30 picks of the weft.

Once the required amount is taken, wind it onto a bobbin.

For the tulip sample, 118 picks are needed for the background green weft. In this case, considering the amount to be wound on bobbins, break down the measurement into several times. For example, take 30 picks 4 times, 40 picks 3 times, 60 picks twice, and so on. Proceed with the amount you are comfortable with.

I recommend that you prepare the weft you need in advance using this method so that you can enjoy just weaving without being interrupted in the middle of weaving. Try it out!

Thank you for reading to the end!