@danielanyg for normal patterns, what i do is i hold one end of the string in one hand, stretch my arms as wide as they go, and hold the other end in my other hand. then i cut it a little bit longer than where my other hand is holding it. you'll see people refer to this as a "wingspan length" depending on what ties you're doing, you might want to cut the string a bit longer, but a wingspans length is a good estimate. 😊
