The price had been stable (and slightly declining) for far too long...if you look at a log chart the price was far below the line by the time October came around but I think people were just stuck in the mindset that the price was what it was supposed to be so nobody risked going too high or too low.
Then Silk Road was busted and the price dropped about 40% shaking things up, then the price came back up.
This got a lot of media attention along with the idea that the fact that the Bitcoin price was still back to where it was and a little higher meant that Bitcoin wasn't just a bunch of drug users on Silk Road. So the price started going up slowly.
Then China started buying. The price correction of such a long stagnant price combined with the idea that the Chinese would be huge adopters sent the price up higher and higher. This created some media buzz around Bitcoin and more people started jumping in both in the US and in China.
Looking at a log scale again you would see that the price went above the line.
News about China "banning" Bitcoin dropped the price down and it started moving back to where the price should be on the log scale after a while.
The MtGox fiasco has kept us on the low end of the log scale and every piece of news about MtGox pushes the price lower.
Check this chart to see it a bit more clearly:
https://www.tradingview.com/v/7YEmxS3K/