Question for knitters!!

[Runninglate]

Can anyone recommend an alternative to Jaeger Silk that I could use to knit a dress for a

have a look at this site. click on 'all yarns' and look at the yarns that appeal. they have sizing guidelines.

eg. this one is on 3.25mm which would probably be ok.

or this although very expensive!

they also have sirdar and wendy which are cheaper and generally machine washable.

Is the pattern online? It might make making recommendations easier. Also, it could show how hard it would be to adapt the pattern to a different gauge.

3mm pins means you have to do a lot of knitting to make something, btw.

do you want a good sub for the silk, or is it the gauge you are after?

The thing is, there isn't really a cheaper alternative to silk, imo. You could go for something synthetic, or cotton, or wool, but they would all look quite different.

I presume I would need to match the gauge to ensure that the dress wasn't too thick and stiff? I would love to use bigger needles and thicker wool if I could get away with it but I'm not sure that would look or feel as nice? Oh dear - is it really going to take me ages would I have it done by the summer with a 10 week old baby???

I'm not after silk particularly - just something that's soft and not scratchy and machine washable is perfect! Thank you wartywarthogfor the links!

The pattern isn't on-line unfortunately!

You can work it in different yarn/needles, but you have to fiddle with the pattern. How hard that is, depends on the pattern. Can you find a picture of the resulting item online?

I guess a dress for a tiny baby isn't that big, so maybe it won't take that long ... how experienced at knitting are you?

I've found a piccy of the dress online - not a good size but perhaps you can zoom in???

Yes, if you use thicker yarn and/or bigger needles it will either be much too big or much too stiff, and possibly both If the pattern comes in other sizes you'd probably be alright- if there's a size for 0-3 months, say, and you knit that in thicker yarn then it might be right for 6-9 months, for example. I don't think it matters unduly with babies- if it's too big for them at the moment it will be alright in a few months' time. If you want to substitute it for the right gauge then most 4 ply yarns would be right, or could be made to be right. Something like Rowan CashCotton might be good, as it would have some of the heaviness that I think you'd need to get the same drape as silk; cashmere would be quite a different look.

how about linen?

cheaper and has a nice drape imo

just to complicate matters!