A loom for producing a pile fabric, in particular a carpet, the loom including a reed having a plurality of reed fingers, each adjacent pair of reed fingers defining therebetween a reed dent, the reed being movable in a forwards direction to a forward most position and movable in a rearward direction to a rearward most position, a plurality of loop forming lances, each lance having a body extending through a dent in the reed, each lance having upper and lower yarn deflectors for deflecting loop forming warp yarn to one side or the other side of the lance in dependence on whether said warp yarn is travelling from above to below the lance or vice versa, each lance further including a guide formation engageable with both opposed reed fingers in said reed for determining the warp wise position of side upper and lower warp yarn deflectors relative to said opposed reed fingers when the reed is at its rearmost position, said guide formations being located outside the dents of said reed when the reed is at its forwardmost position to permit loop forming yarn to pass between each lance (2) and its associated dent (15) in the reed (20).