Where has all the Wollmeise gone?

my very own skein of Wollmeise
Originally uploaded by batsheva7

When is a craze for a brand of yarn a frenzy? a bubble?

I heard about Wollmeise yarns on Ravelry soon after becoming more active. People rave about the colors and the quality; speak endlessly about how difficult the yarn is to obtain and share strategies for getting some. After seeing all of the interest, I checked out projects made with this yarn, and found deep saturated colors and person after person saying that the yarn is wonderful, there is no better yarn.

With the popularity, comes scarcity.  Wollmeise is very hard to purchase. Very few places sell it and those that do sell Wollmeise sell out moments after making it available on their websites. I wasn't interested in staying up all night to try and get in on the Wollmeise craze. When I checked out Wollmeise available for sale or trade on Ravelry, it was soon obvious that FSOT is really FT when it comes to this yarn. People who have multiple skeins of yarn are only interested in trading for other colors, not in selling.

Against the odds I managed to order a skein of Wollmeise 100% Merino Superwash in Blue Curacao at the beginning of the month and it arrived soon after. The color is indeed very beautiful and saturated.  I don't know if this is the best yarn ever because I haven't settled on a project for it yet.

While I was waiting for the yarn to arrive, I went on Ravelry to see what others have done with their precious skeins and I found something very interesting. There are only 8,357 projects made with Wollmeise 100% Merino Superwash, but there are over 30,000 skeins stashed away! Even knowing that not every knitter or crocheter is on Ravelry, to my mind, the numbers indicate that everyone is falling over themselves to get their hands on the yarn, but no one is making anything with it.  This vast difference between Wollmeise acquired and Wollmeise used smells like a bubble, with too many people going after too few things, bidding the price up, and speculators investing in the yarn for sale rather than for knitting.

I like my solitary skein of Wollmeise, and I might buy a companion for it one day, but I am leaving this yarn bubble alone.