Koigu, or yarn porn

There are many categories of yarn in a sock knitter’s stash. Some are tried and true work horses that you are forever turning to out of habit. They are dependable, trustworthy, a known quantity. For me, Opal and Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Multi fit this bill. I know exactly what I’m going to get when I cast on one of these two yarns, and I am never disappointed. I have many, many skeins on hand at a time and have no qualms about giving a skein or two away, either. Then there are those skeins that have yet to capture your imagination, and you can’t really say why. They are just there, in your stash. Taking up space. Waiting to be knitted. For me these would be your Meilenweits, your Regias and your Plymouth Sockottas. I’m sure they are phenomenal and produce a perfectly acceptable sock. I just haven’t bothered to actually give them the time of day, although I have many, many skeins in my stash. Another distinct category is that of the exotic specialty sock yarn. Maybe it’s a yarn that your LYS doesn’t carry and that you have to travel a distance to obtain. Perhaps it’s somewhat unusual and so you use it sparingly. For me Mountain Colors Bearfoot and Claudia’s Hand Painted are in this category. They are a little bit foreign and thus have an air of mystery about them.But they are still a known quantity.

And then there’s Koigu.

For so long this yarn has been something akin to the Holy Grail. None of my LYSs carry it. Until recently I never seemed to be in the right place at the right time to get it. All that has now changed. Now I have it and I cannot live without it.(See above picture for most recent addition to my stash). I even keep it in its own little special VIP section of my stash, cordoned off from the more pedestrian skeins. It’s become a fetish object. Sometimes I just want to pet it. I was afraid to knit it for fear of damaging its most perfect form. But now I have almost completed a sock (pictured above) in it and it’s just as I feared: it's absolutely divine and thus controlling my mind. It’s all I think about and I can’t stop. Help. me. please.
But, why? What's all the fuss about? Please, someone explain to me, what is it about it that makes it so darn appealing? Is it the colorways? The way it’s wound? The scarcity? The hype? Help me to name it and understand its power, then maybe I can break free…