Cashmere Prices, and what Axelle has in common with The Little Dutch Boy

They say that no news is good news. And sometimes, like now, that would be true.

Unfortunately, I do have news.

There's really no way to sugar coat it, so here it is: As of September 1, the price of the aran weight cashmere (Pippin) and the sportweight cashmere (Estelle) will go up.

This seems to be an industry-wide phenomenon. Those of you who shop for cashmere yarn may have already noticed a marked increase in the price of knitting cashmere in LYSs across the country. Since this spring I have been eyeball deep in negotiations with suppliers to maintain the current prices, but the truth is that the tide is on the rise and there is no stopping it. The price of cashmere as a raw material has risen exponentially over the past year such that my company was only able to obtain the current supply of cashmere at around three times the price it was last year.

For the sake of all of you I have been holding off on the price increase for as long as possible, like the little Dutch boy's attempt to save his little town by using his finger plugging a hole in a dam that's about to break. But although now I have no choice but to bend with the weight of the market, the least I can do is give you all a little heads up.