Alternative for vintage yarn recommendation

[Tammy Leggetter]

Hello, Any help gratefully received on advice for an alternative to the below yarn that is recommended (but no longer available) in a vintage pattern I purchased:

Jaeger 3 ply wool pure botany.  

Copy of finished garment from pattern attached.

Thank  you very much

Tammy 

 

 

[Granny Square]

Is this a UK pattern?  This site shows both UK & US yarn 'terms' (it's a UK site).  The yarn symbol column  is a US standard labelling for yarn size, example your pattern says 3 ply, "x ply" is the UK definition of yarn weight, which confusingly has nothing to do with the actual plies the yarn has (thin strands twisted together to make 1 plied strand).  Using this chart, 3 ply UK yarn is classed as US 1 'superfine', which is the same as most yarn sold as 'sock yarn'.  Michael's US craft store has a store-brand of this weight yarn in acrylic (which I've used, it's nice and very inexpensive), called 'Woollike', it has 678 yards per skein.

Another thing to consider is if your pattern says (example) "3 skeins of Jaeger 3 ply wool pure botany" are required for size x, is how many yards were in that skein of now-unavailable yarn?  Because you are going to have to sub the same weight of a new yarn, and skein yardage by brand and yarn weight vary wildly, you may need 7 skeins of a modern brand x with a small yardage put-up,  or 2 skeins of modern brand y with a bigger yardage put-up, to get the same yardage required in 3 skeins of the original.  It seems to me that there was a site somewhere that listed old yarn brands and yardage put-ups, which is now of course eluding me.  Another not-accurate way to guess would be to find a similar modern pattern in the same yarn weight, and extrapolate from that; your pattern has a LOT of post stitches, which take more yarn than plain stitches (because post stitches overlap other stitches).  Worst case, buy more than you need and you may have enough for another small project.

[Bailey4]

Just for future reference this site lists old yarn brands. Vintage Knits

Didn't find this one but it might help in future.

This is the info on the yarn available at Ravelry here.

Edited January 11, 2021 by Bailey4

[Granny Square]

Here is a pattern for a pullover in that weight of yarn, it calls for Drops Fabel in a yardage range of  300-350-400-450-500-550 grams depending on size small to XXXL, This makes it more complicated because it calls out grams not meters or yards...per the description of that yarn, "Weight/yardage (per skein): 1.8 oz (50 g) = approx 224 yds (205 m). 

So each skein is 50 grams which = 224 yards. So, for example, figuring the smallest size, which takes 300 grams--300 grams divided by 50 grams in 1 skein = 6 skeins of this Drops brand of yarn.  Therefore 224 yards in 1 skein, times 6 skeins, is 1,344 yards required.  Hey, you can get by with 1.82 skeins of the 'Woolike' if that is your size (I divided 1344 yards needed for the sweater, by 678 yards in 1 skein of Woollike).  Not that I'm pushing that particular yarn, just showing how to figure out how much you'd need (skeins to buy), depending on your size and choice of replacement yarn.  Caveat, the pattern I chose is not the same, it doesn't have poste stitches, so you'd want to round up - probably by a third

[Granny Square]

Perfect--Thanks Bailey4 we posted at the same time. 120 yards in the Jaeger skein (that's TINY!).  So just comparing that, again with the Woollike -- 678 yards,  divided by 120, means that 1 skein of the Woollike would take the place of 5.65 skeins of the Jaeger.  (I'd count it as 5 skeins, you  want to buy more than get caught short and not being able to find the same dye lot later).

edited to add - "yarnsub.com" was what I was trying to remember earlier, they had listings for Jaeger "other yarns" but not the one listed in your pattern, good thing Ravelry had it listed!

Edited January 11, 2021 by Granny Square

[Bailey4]

Yarn sub is my go to but I noticed they didn't have this one either.