substituting yarns for gauge

[kahurley63]

Hi
I want to knit my husband a sweater, he picked a nice one by picture, but it requires Organic Wool using size 9 needles and a gauge of 17sts and 23 rows= 4". okay, here's the problem, my husband HATES wool. What yarn do I substitute with theses dimensions. It requires 5 skeins for a Large, how many skeins would I need?
Thank you for any advice at all
K:???:

[Mirl56]

I'd start looking here: www.yarndex.com to find a yarn that has a similar guage. It may recommend a different needle size (but will probably be between 7 - 10), but you mostly want to match the stitches per inch.

As to how many you need to buy - you need to look at the original yarn suggested. Say it it coems in 500 yd sken and they want you to get 5 - you need 500 x 5 = 2,500 yards. Now look at the yarn you decide to use - say that comes in skeins of 650 yards. So take the total 2,500 yards, divided by 650 = 3.85 or 4 skeins.

[Cynamar]

What about superwash wool? He won't itch or even know it's wool if you don't tell him. It's also cooler (temperature, I mean) than synthetics.

[suzeeq]

I wouldn't try to sell him on wool, or spend the money to try and 'fool' him. Just try an acrylic, cotton/acrylic blend or something else in a worsted weight. And you want to total the yardage in the 5 skeins called for in the pattern and get the same amount in your substitute.

[kahurley63]

Thank you so much. I'm not any good with the conversions. You have no idea how much I appreciate this.
k