Originally Posted by Favorite Fabrics
Originally Posted by QUILTKNIT1
A recent newspaper article about the price of cotton going up 55% at the end or beginning of this month (I don't remember which) will cause of anything cotton to rise considerably. Do not blame your LQS.
Sure wish I could read the article!
Say, does anybody here know how to read commodity price charts? I found a 20-year chart showing the price of cotton:
http://www.cstcharts.com/cgi-bin/chartge.pl?ct.m
and a 2-year chart (which is more encouraging, as it shows prices leveling off:
http://futures.tradingcharts.com/chart/CT/w
Cotton is bought and sold on the futures market. It's much like gambling. Based on the amount of cotton produced and the amount of cotton sold the market will vary. If it is a bad year for cotton growers and the demand remains the same or increases then the price will go up. If growers have a bumper crop and the demand remains the same or decreases then the price goes down. It's the principle of supply and demand. I worked in the cotton industry for 25 years. In 2006 the price bottomed out and I was laid off. That's when I started quilting. Best thing ever happened to me.