As you already know, everything has been getting more expensive over the last year or two.  Gas prices have gone up, along with grocery bills and the cost of various services.  The fiber world hasn’t been immune to these global changes, unfortunately, and we’ve seen dramatic pricing increases in the cost of our raw materials and shipping since 2009.  We’ve been able to keep our pricing from increasing through the worst of the economic crisis, but wool and other fibers are staying at the higher prices and our new contracts reflect this.  

On January 4th, we will be increasing prices on wool/wool blend and alpaca/alpaca blend yarn lines.  Any lines introduced as new in 2011 already have their price increases built in, since their shipments came in at the new higher prices, and those 2011 new yarn lines will not be increasing on the 4th.  Discontinued yarn lines will not be increasing in price, and cotton yarns will also remain at their current pricing for the January increase.  We wanted to announce this early for our best customers and give the opportunity for folks to stock up 

I want to personally assure you that we’re doing everything we can at Knit Picks to keep yarn prices as low and affordable as possible in the face of these rising materials costs.  We’ve discontinued our least popular yarn lines that would have also seen dramatic price increases, and this will allow us to devote more resources to bringing in new yarn lines in 2012.