---
title: "How Much Yarn Do You Need for a Tufted Rug?"
description: "Grams of yarn per square metre for tufting, by yarn type, strand count and pile height, with a worked example and the buffer to add. The same numbers Loopi's calculator uses."
canonical_url: "https://www.loopi.space/blog/how-much-yarn-for-tufting"
---
> Index of every page on this site: [llms.txt](https://www.loopi.space/llms.txt)
# How Much Yarn Do You Need for a Tufted Rug?
Running out of one colour halfway across a rug is the most avoidable problem in tufting. A dye lot bought three weeks later rarely matches, and the seam where the new cone starts shows for the life of the rug. This guide gives you the numbers to buy the right amount the first time.
At a standard 18 mm cut pile, plan on about **0.9 kg of acrylic per square metre for every strand** you run through the gun, so 2.7 kg/m² for the common three-strand setup. Rug-weight wool is heavier: about **2.5 kg/m² per strand**. Multiply by the area of each colour, then add 10 to 15 percent for test lines, mistakes and trimming.
## The four things that decide yarn use
Yarn use per square metre comes down to four settings. Change any one of them and the total moves in proportion.
1. **Yarn type.** Acrylic tufting yarn is light for its bulk. Rug wool is denser and heavier per metre, so the same area takes more weight.
2. **Strand count.** Most tufters feed two to four strands of acrylic through the gun at once to fill the backing. Each extra strand adds the full weight of one more layer of pile.
3. **Pile height.** A taller pile needs a longer loop of yarn for every tuft. Going from 18 mm to 60 mm uses roughly three and a third times the yarn.
4. **Line spacing.** How close you run your lines. Tighter lines pack more tufts into the same area. In practice this moves the total by about 15 percent either way.
Colour count and design complexity do not change the total weight much. They change how that weight splits between cones, which is why a per-colour breakdown matters more than a single total.
## Yarn per square metre: the table
These are the figures Loopi's [yarn calculator](https://www.loopi.space/yarn-calc) uses at normal line spacing. They assume cut pile; loop pile at the same height uses about the same amount (more on that below).
|
Yarn
|
Strands
|
18 mm pile
|
60 mm pile
|
|
Acrylic
|
1
|
0.9 kg/m²
|
3.0 kg/m²
|
|
Acrylic
|
2
|
1.8 kg/m²
|
6.0 kg/m²
|
|
Acrylic
|
3
|
2.7 kg/m²
|
9.0 kg/m²
|
|
Acrylic
|
4
|
3.6 kg/m²
|
12.0 kg/m²
|
|
Wool
|
1
|
2.5 kg/m²
|
8.3 kg/m²
|
|
Wool
|
2
|
5.0 kg/m²
|
16.7 kg/m²
|
In imperial units, 1 kg/m² is about 3.3 oz per square foot. Three strands of acrylic at 18 mm comes to roughly 8.9 oz per square foot.
The 60 mm column is for shag and high-pile guns. Very few rugs are tufted that tall all over; most use it for accents, where the extra weight only applies to that area.
## A worked example
Say a client wants a 60 × 90 cm rug in three colours, tufted in acrylic with three strands at 18 mm.
1. **Area.** 0.6 m × 0.9 m = 0.54 m².
2. **Total yarn.** 0.54 m² × 2.7 kg/m² = 1.46 kg.
3. **Split by colour.** If the design is 50 percent cream, 30 percent rust and 20 percent green, that is 0.73 kg, 0.44 kg and 0.29 kg.
4. **Add a buffer.** At 15 percent: 0.84 kg cream, 0.50 kg rust, 0.34 kg green.
Then round up to what you can buy. If cream comes on 1 kg cones, one cone covers it. If rust comes in 200 g skeins, you need three.
The step most people skip is the third one. A design that "looks mostly white" can easily be 65 percent white once you measure it, and that is the colour you run out of. Loopi measures the share of each colour from the image itself, so you do not have to estimate it by eye.
## Why add 10 to 15 percent
The figures above are what ends up in the rug. You also lose yarn in places the table does not count:
- **Test lines** at the edge of the frame while you adjust speed and strands.
- **Pulled-out sections** when a line wanders over a boundary.
- **Shearing.** Carving and trimming the face of the rug removes pile, and the more sculpting you do, the more you remove.
- **Tails** at the start and end of every colour change.
On a simple, flat rug, 10 percent is usually enough. On a carved or heavily trimmed piece, or the first time you use a new yarn, go to 15 or 20 percent. Leftover yarn is never wasted: it goes on the shelf for the next design.
## Cut pile vs loop pile
Per tuft, a cut tuft and a loop use about the same length of yarn at the same height: both are one length of yarn folded through the backing. The difference in total weight comes from how the two are usually made. Loop pile tends to be run lower, often 10 to 14 mm, and lower pile means less yarn. If you tuft loop at the same height as cut, budget the same amount.
For more on how the two look and wear, see [cut pile vs loop pile](https://www.loopi.space/blog/cut-pile-vs-loop-pile).
## Calibrate the numbers to your own setup
Every gun, yarn and hand is a little different. The table is a good starting point, and you can make it exact for your studio in about twenty minutes:
1. Weigh a full cone or skein before you start.
2. Tuft a 20 × 20 cm square (0.04 m²) at your usual settings.
3. Weigh the cone again. The difference is the yarn in your square.
4. Divide by 0.04 to get your own kg per square metre.
If your square used 120 g, that is 3.0 kg/m², about 11 percent more than the three-strand figure in the table. Next time, you know to add that on top. Loopi's calculator lets you set line spacing tighter or looser to match.
## Buying yarn without overbuying
A few habits keep your shelf from filling up with half-cones you never use:
- **Buy each colour's full amount from one dye lot.** Even "the same" acrylic shade can shift between batches.
- **Check what you already own first.** A colour that is close enough on your shelf is free; the exact Pantone match is not. Loopi's yarn shelf shows which colours in a design you already have and lists only the ones you need to buy.
- **Use leftovers for small pieces.** Coasters, wall hangings and test swatches are what partial cones are for.
## Frequently asked questions
### How much yarn do I need for a 1 m² tufted rug?
At 18 mm cut pile, about 2.7 kg of acrylic with three strands, or 2.5 kg of rug wool with one strand. Add 10 to 15 percent on top for testing and trimming.
### How much yarn is in a 60 × 60 cm rug?
The area is 0.36 m². With three strands of acrylic at 18 mm, that is about 0.97 kg, or roughly 1.1 kg with a buffer.
### Does a design with more colours use more yarn?
Not in total weight. More colours mean more colour changes, so a little more lost to tails, but the main effect is that the same weight is split across more cones. You may need to buy more cones in total because each one is only partly used.
### Is wool or acrylic cheaper per rug?
Acrylic almost always costs less, both because it is cheaper per kilo and because it is lighter per square metre. Wool costs more but holds its shape and resists flattening better, which matters for floor rugs. See [the best yarn for tufting](https://www.loopi.space/blog/best-yarn-for-tufting) for a full comparison.
### Can I use the calculator with yarn from any brand?
Yes. Loopi's [yarn calculator](https://www.loopi.space/yarn-calc) works from the area, the yarn type and your settings, not from a brand catalogue. You set your own price per kilo to get the cost.
## Sitemap
See the full [sitemap](https://www.loopi.space/sitemap.md) for all pages.