Macramé Cord Length Calculator
Enter the finished length of your piece, how dense the knotting is and how long the fringe will be. The calculator applies the usual per-strand multiplier, doubles it for folded cords, and totals the cord you need.
The formula
Worked example. a 60 cm piece with tight knots and a 15 cm fringe needs 315 cm per strand; folded and with a 10% margin that is 693 cm per cord, and 12 cords take about 83 m.
How to use it
- Measure or decide the finished length of the knotted part, not counting the fringe.
- Choose the knotting density. Open work with spaced knots uses about 4× the finished length per strand, tight square knots about 5×, and complex or dense knotting about 6×.
- Tick the folded option if each cord is folded in half over a dowel or ring with a lark's head knot, which is how most wall hangings start.
- Enter how many cords you will cut and a safety margin, then check the result against one test cord on a new pattern.
Questions
Why do macramé patterns use different multipliers?
Each knot wraps cord around other cords, so the more and tighter the knots, the more length disappears into them. Thick cord also uses more per knot. That is why guides range from about 4× to 8× per strand.
Do all the cords in a piece need the same length?
No. Cords that do most of the knotting, such as the outer working cords in a square-knot sinnet, use more than the filler cords they wrap around. For patterns with very uneven work, cut the working cords longer.
What if I run short?
You can add a new cord by hiding the join inside a knot, but it is much easier to cut a little long. The safety margin is there for that; trimming the fringe costs far less than rejoining.