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What Reed do I need?
There’s two things we want to know when selecting a reed, if it will fit your Loom and if it is the right dpi for your project. Please also note that our Ashford reeds are designed to fit just right in our Ashford looms, we cannot guarantee that these reeds will fit non-Ashford looms.
It is sometimes hard to figure out what reed you need to fit your loom because weaving areas and frame widths are very different and makes it a little confusing. When something is marketed as a 25cm loom, that refers to the weaving width only, not the total loom width and not the finished woven material width either because this shrinks when taken off the loom and washed. With all this in mind, it’s super easy to make a mistake in reed selection!
Take an Ashford 25cm Sampleit Loom for example. The physical total width of the loom is 31cm (excluding the cogs.) The total width of reed nylons are just under 25cm (you can put a warp on the outside of the last reed hole to give you the 25cm weave width). The space between the reed supports is 30cm while the length of the wood that holds your white nylon reeds is 29.4cm.
It’s those last two measurements that are most important.
When measuring your loom, measure the space between your Reed Support Bars. On the 25cm Sampleit Loom this space is 30cm. I therefore need a reed with a total length of 29.4cm or less to fit. NOT 30cm, that will be too tight, you need a few mm less for wiggle room.
When Measuring a reed, make sure you measure the longest wooden frame section, or in the case of our table loom reeds include the end caps in your measurement. They are the same length on our Rigid Heddle Loom Reeds, Table Loom Reeds and Vari Dent Reeds but different lengths on our Knitters Loom Reeds.
Measuring can be a tricky, we know! So don’t fret, we’ve put together some tables for you to make reed selection simple.
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And for the Ashford Vari Dent Reeds:
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Now we know the right reed to FIT our loom, we want to know which DPI we want for a project. 
If you are following a pattern for your project it will generally tell you what dent reed you need and at what epi (sett). However, if you are designing your own pattern or just like to work with some lovely yarn you have already, here is a table of what works well together.
On our website we have your dpi options available for selection under ‘STYLE’.
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You also have the option of using a Vari Dent Reed which includes dent panels in all the dpi sizes. This allows you to make creative weavings using thick and thin yarns in the same project. Investing in a Vari Dent Reed will give you this fun creative option while also letting you sample all the dpi sizes before buying a full reed in each dpi. 
Note that you cannot use the Vari Dent Reed to create a complete reed with the 1 dpi size.
Please remember that we cannot guarantee that our Ashford reeds will fit other brands of looms.
We hope this article has made it super easy for you to select the perfect fitting reed for your Ashford loom. Please email us if you have any more questions.
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