Accessing variables outside of The Loop

Hi,

I’m creating a side-scrolling WordPress blog template. I have a div inside of which is several other divs (each is a separate post) floated left. The user scrolls through the site horizontally.
I know – it’s a design better suited to print that the web, but i’m determined to make it work.

I need to calculate the sum of the widths of the posts (they’re not all the same width), and then set the width of the containing div to this number. Sorry if this is all a bit hard to understand.
I’ve been able to get the sum by adding to a variable within the loop every time it loops, but now i need to access this variable BEFORE the loop (for the containing div).

Can anyone help? If you need clarification on the situation please say so.

Thanks!