Your pattern wants 199 meters. The shop sells 100-meter rolls.
Pick what you are making, and this turns the finished size into a cut list, the cut list into meters, the meters into the spools you actually have to buy, the dowel or ring to go with them, what one piece really cost, and what the market table leaves you. Everything stays in your browser.
What you are making
Each one starts from a published recipe — the multiplier, the cord, the hardware — and every number under it is yours to change. Once you have made three, your own finished pieces are a better chart than anyone's.
Your cut list
The list you tape to the wall: how many cords, cut how long, in which cord. The first row follows the piece above until you type in it; add a row for filler cords, tassels or a second size.
What to buy
The hardware
What one piece costs you
Your cut list and your buy list export any time — that button is a promise, not a feature. What you build here leaves with you.
madekeeper.com/macrame-cord-calculator
Multipliers: Bochiknot, "How to Measure Macramé Cord" (fringe 3–3.5×, standard knotting 4–4.5×, dense 5–5.5×, spirals 30–40% more, add 10–15%); Hemptique, "Macrame Cord Length Calculator" (wall hangings 4–6×, plant hangers 5–7×, keychains 3–5×, add 15–20%); Marching North, "How to Estimate Macrame Cord Length" (×4, then ×2 for the fold, thicker cord needs more) — all read September 4, 2026, and all three say to measure your own finished piece and keep your own chart. Cords across a width: Perles & Co, width ÷ (diameter × 3); Niroma Studio, about one strand per inch of dowel, with worked examples (a 5 × 6 ft hanging at 64 strands × 648 in; a 36 in plant hanger at 8 strands × 11 ft). Switching cord size: Bochiknot, length × (new ÷ old thickness); My Mum the Dreamer's conversion chart, 5 mm → 3 mm × 0.6. Sold as: Bochiknot single-strand rolls at 50 m, 100 m and up to 300 m; typical listings 3 mm ≈ 300–360 m per kg, 4 mm ≈ 180 m per kg — your roll's label wins. Recipes: Ganxxet keychain (three 48 in cords of 3–4 mm), Ganxxet and One Little Project coaster (one 60 in and five 30–32 in cords of 3 mm), Niroma plant hanger (8 × 11 ft), My French Twist market bag (20 × 390 cm + one 200 cm of 4–5 mm), Macranova curtains (90 × 185 cm in 5 mm = 240 m; 120 × 200 cm in 4 mm = 573 m). Pricing: the (materials + your time) × 2 wholesale rule makers quote (Made Urban, Macrame Cords Pari). Fee rates as of July 29, 2026: Square in-person 2.6% + 15¢; Etsy $0.20 listing + 6.5% transaction + 3% + $0.25 US payment processing. A table or booth fee is its own cost — this page prices the piece, and the fair profit calculator prices the day.
The numbers here are yours to check. This page does arithmetic on what you type — it cannot see your recipe, your equipment or your batch.
This is one calculator, not six.
The piece feeds the cut list, the cut list feeds the meters, the meters feed the rolls to buy and what is left on the last one, the cord a piece consumes feeds its true cost, the width feeds the dowel, and the cost feeds what you keep at the table, on Etsy, or cash in hand. Switch from 5 mm to 3 mm and the cut lengths and the cord count both move. Change one number and everything below rolls.
In your shop it is the same calculator with your rows behind it. Your cord shelf answers before you cut: “you can make 6 of the Moon hanging with the cord on the shelf — 4 more would need 124 m more of 4 mm,” with the numbers. The plan lands in Make with How many already filled in and the cord helper open on your cut list. A web calculator cannot do that, because it has never seen your shelf. $19/mo for the whole back office, kept for as long as you stay. The shop stays free for cost a piece and one fair — no product cap. The tax packet, Etsy and Square, and more fairs are the $19.
The cut you cannot take back
Cutting cord is the one irreversible step in macramé, which is why the multiplier question precedes every piece. The math behind the page, spelled out — and honest about which numbers are conventions you should overrule with your own finished work.
What multiplier should I use?
This is the argued number in the whole craft, and every published chart differs: mostly fringe with little knotting runs 3 to 3.5 times the finished length, standard square-knot and half-hitch work 4 to 4.5, dense or textured rows 5 to 5.5, and spirals 30 to 40 percent more again. Plant hangers run 5 to 7 and keychains 3 to 5. Those bands are the starting points here, chosen by what you are making, and the number is yours to change — because once you have made three pieces, your own finished work is a better chart than anyone's.
How many cords go across the dowel?
Divide the width by the cord diameter times three, for cords mounted folded. A 24-inch hanging in 4 mm cord is 610 mm across, 610 divided by 12 is 51 working strands, which is 26 cords cut and folded. Another rule of thumb makers use is about one strand per inch of dowel. Put your own count in if your pattern says otherwise — spacing is a design choice, and the answer says which rule it used.
How many spools do I buy?
That is the arithmetic this page exists for. Your cut list wants meters; the shop sells rolls. Three hangings at 199 meters each want 597 meters, a 200-meter roll buys 3 rolls and 3 meters stand on the last spool. Cord is also sold by the kilo, so a 1 kg spool is about 340 meters of 3 mm, 180 meters of 4 mm, 120 meters of 5 mm — starting points, because rolls differ by mill, and your spool's own label wins. What is left on the roll is reported, never charged to these pieces.
I am switching from 5 mm to 3 mm — what changes?
The cut length moves with the thickness ratio: a 5 mm pattern cut at 4 meters becomes 4 × 3 ÷ 5, which is 2.4 meters in 3 mm. The cord count moves the other way, because thinner cord needs more strands to fill the same width. Put the pattern's cord size in beside yours and the page shows both factors; makers who publish this chart also say to add 10 percent the first time you knot a converted pattern.
What does one piece really cost me?
The cord it consumes at your real per-meter cost, plus the dowel, ring or clasp. Cord left on the roll is reported, never charged — it goes into the next piece, so loading it onto this one would overstate every piece you make. Your hours are on their own line: they price the work, and the wholesale figure makers quote is materials plus your time, times two. They never become a tax number.