Who we are:

Tactile was started by Brooke & Maia out of a love for great materials and a desire for more creativity in our daily work.  We met while taking spinning and natural dyeing classes.  Our use of natural dyes was an outgrowth of our mutual interest in the environment and a desire to use safer dye stuffs.  We are committed to sourcing the finest in spinning fibers and knitting yarns.  On-line shopping is coming very soon!

Maia & Brooke have both been knitters since they were young.  Maia's current obsession is socks.  She has been busy creating a range of beautiful sock patterns that compliment our sock yarns.  Besides spinning and knitting, Brooke loves to weave, felt, and sew.

To learn more about Brooke and Maia please visit their blogs at MissyB and Maia Spins, or visit the Tactile blog.

Why Natural Dyes:

Tactile offers spinning and felting fibers and yarns hand-dyed with high quality natural dyes.  These dyes have a long and rich tradition in many cultures throughout the world. While the natural dyeing process is more labor intensive, we feel that it provides an important connection to the past and produces results that can not be replicated with synthetic dyes. Each dye is a reflection of its environment and the climate in which it was grown. Add water chemistry and dyeing temperatures and you get the unique set of influences that causes natural dyes to vary each time you use them.  As dyers, this keeps things exciting and new each time we dye.  We hope that you come to love natural dyes as much as we do!

We strive to make our business as green and sustainable as possible. We are actively working with local woolgrowers to improve the quality of local fibers and promote locally produced fiber products. We use only food grade alum and cream of tartar when mordanting.  The dyes themselves are from a wonderful company called Earthues and are certified organic by the EU, fair-trade, and sourced responsibly.  Michele, the owner of Earthues, has gone to great lengths to find dyes that stand up to the highest standards of wash and light fast ratings.

What We Offer:

Fiber:
We offer a variety of spinning and felting fibers.  We have a selection of fine wools including Merino, Superwash Merino, and South African Fine; plus wool blends like Merino-Tencel, Merino-Silk, and Wool-SoySilk.  We carry Bluefaced Leicester and Alpaca in dyed colors and in natural colors.  Our preferred silk is Tussah, the wild grown silk.  For the sock yarn spinners, we carry Wensleydale and we are actively seeking other hard wearing long wools.

Our selection of plant fibers includes Hemp, Tencel, and Cotton-Silk.  An exciting new fiber is Black Diamond Bamboo, a carbonized bamboo fiber that has a wonderful charcoal gray color and a soft silky hand.  Look for the selection of plant fibers to grow from here.

Sock Yarn:
We currently carry two weights of yarn, fingering and sport.  In fingering weight we have Superwash Merino, Merino-Tencel, and Merino-Bamboo.  In sport weight we have Superwash Merino and Merino-Linen.  All of these yarns are suitable for sock knitting, lace, or other fine gauge knitting.

What the Future Holds:

Our on-line shopping cart will be up and running soon.  In addition to our wonderful fibers and yarns, we will offer patterns, tutorials, handspun yarn, and much more.

In the near future, we will offer classes, workshops, Schacht spinning wheels and accessories, books, and spinning and knitting tools.

Contact us at