Blues & Golds Grab Bag

Grab Bags!

2 oz of assort fibery goodness including any of the almost 50 fibers Tactile has carried.  How much fun is that?  Each grab bag will include at least 7 different fibers.  Maybe a bit of California Variegated Mutant (CVM) locks, or some merino-bamboo, could it be yak-tussah or shetland?

The picture shows an example of the Blues & Golds Grab Bag.  Each one will be different and will probably be completely different from the picture.  But, that is all part of the mystery isn’t it?  There is a slip of paper identifying which fibers are included.

Silk Noil!

Concord Grape Silk Noil

Silk Noil is the waste bits from the silk reeling or combing processes. Much of it is the first bit of fiber the silk larvae spins, which has less luster and is more brittle. Noil is very chunky with a short staple length.

It can be spun alone, but most often it is blended with a wool fiber. Try blending it 50-50 with your favorite wool for a highly textured yarn. Spin it fairly fine so the noil bits pop out for maximum texture. For less texture, blend in less noil.

Packaged in 1 oz bags as a little goes a long way.

Silk Sampler

Silk Sampler!

Another fun sampler.  This one is  4 types of naturally colored silk.  You’ll get 1 oz each of tussah and mulberry silk top, 1 silk cap (approximately 21-25 grams or 3/4 oz), and 1/2 oz of mulberry silk noil.

Experience the variety of silk available to spinners and felters.

Ancient Breeds

And, the return of the popular Ancient Breeds Sampler!

Five ancient breeds: Finn, Gotland, Icelandic, Norwegian, and Shetland.

It is not all about fiber though.

New Yarns:

Silk-Camel Fingering Weight

Silk-Camel Fingering Weight!

Lovely fingering weight yarn made from 70% Silk and 30% Camel Down. A bit of shine and drape in a soft warm yarn. This yarn is suitable for lace knitting, weaving, or anything close to the skin.

The 4 oz skeins with approximately 375 yards (997 m) are enough yardage for a small shawl or a hat and mitten set.

Linen-Merino Sport Weight

New colors of Linen-Merino Sport Weight!

The deepest richest red (Pomegranate) I have ever gotten on this yarn, a rich dark gray (New Moon), a bright chartreuse green to remind us that spring will return (Spring), red and purple together at last (passion Flower) to name a few.

Featured Fiber & Yarn

Each month I will feature a fiber and a yarn.  The featured yarn will also be 15% off for the entire month for all sales through the webstore.

For November 2009, the featured fiber is Silk Noil and the featured yarn is Silk-Camel Fingering Weight

We are headed off to Black Sheep Gathering in Euene, Oregon.  If you are coming, please stop by and say hi.

We have some yummy new products debuting this weekend.

Samplers!

When I started spinning, I wanted to try everything.  I still do.  We thought you might too.

Ancient Breeds: Finn, Gotland, Icelandic, Norwegian, and Shetland.

Longwools: Blue Faced Leicester, Coopworth, Masham, and Wensleydale.

Camelids: Baby Camel, Fine Alpaca, Baby Llama, and Suri Alpaca.

Alpaca Survey: Alpaca, Fine Alpaca, Baby Alpaca, and Suri Alpaca.

Cotton Colors: Naturally colored organic cotton in white, green, and brown.

Camel Survey: Baby Camel, Camel-Merino, and Camel Tussah.

See all of the samplers here.

Since they were announced last year, we have wanted St. Blaise combs.  They are the brain child of Robin Russo and her husband Pat Russo. Combs are used for removing short and weak fibers leaving aligned fibers that are a joy to spin.  They are beautifully crafted from Vermont cherry and come with a matching mount.  These 2-pitch (2 rows of tines) combs are named after the patron saint of wool combers who was martyred with wool combs and subsequently died in 316.

Other tools added to the online store include cherry Dizzes also from Robin Russo, the Schacht fine wool and cotton cards, and Schacht Pear Tahkli support spindles.

Wool-Flax: a lovely blend of 60% soft wool and 40% Flax.  Flax is the fiber that makes linen yarn.  Unlike many cellulose fibers on the market now, flax is a bast fiber.  Bast fibers are the structural fibers of the inner bark of the plant.  The process of removing the fibers is called retting.  Flax (linen) is very durable and will soften with wear and washing.

Gray Alpaca: we love dyeing over naturally colored fibers.  It gives a richness and a depth of color that is often hard to achieve with natural dyes.  This alpaca starts as a heathered gray which adds to the richness.  This fiber is very tempting!

We will also be adding no colors of old favorite fibers this week.  To see what is new, click here.

Yummy Merino-Tussah roving.

Shiny Merino-Tencel roving.

We have so much more to show you.  There are five different sock yarns, organic merino yarn, alpaca-wool yarn, and organic cotton yarns.  For the spinners we have wonderful fibers like tussah silk, camel, blue faced leicester, alpaca, yak, bamboo, organic merino, and much, much more.  Pardon my enthusiasm, but it is like working in a candy store.

We also have books, spinning wheels, patterns, kits, and tutorials coming.

If you want to join our email list, please send an email hidden; JavaScript is required.   Folks in the  San Francisco Bay Area can join our regular Spin & Knit groups; join our Google group for more information.  We will keep our upcoming events at the top of the page.

For those of you who don’t know us already, we are Brooke and Maia.  You will find links to our personal blogs (fiber oriented of course!) in the side bar.  We started Tactile almost a year ago and have been selling at fiber festivals and through our local get-togethers .  We are spinners and knitters, dyers and weavers, wives and dog lovers.  Did I mention the love of fiber?  We are so lucky to be Tactile and to work with yarn and fiber every day.  It is by far the best job I have ever, ever had.  May this be a long and wonderful ride!