Nestled comfortably in the lush Pacific Northwest, Wildewood Fibers is owned and operated by April Tsai. Living with her parents, her collie, and her Maine coon, she runs her business while chronically ill with Lyme Disease. 


Color has always driven her passions: Art, sewing, photography, and graphic design were some of her previous fields. It was only natural that when she learned how to knit in 2015, she learned how to dye next. As life took its twists and turns, Wildewood Fibers began its humble roots on Mercari, a selling app. Enjoyment of dyeing and testing theories while being able to move her creations on to loving homes was paramount to the process. Finally, in February of 2020, Wildewood Fibers opened its doors on Etsy. 

And now, we are a stand-alone small-batch company specializing in rich jewel tones, intentional colorstories, and complementary speckles inspired by moody romance, whimsy, joy, and our Chinese heritage and culture.

April

Your Everything
at
Wildewood Fibers

April is the resident dyer who also takes care of website upkeep, graphics, photography, product listing, packing and logistics, customer service, communications, and social media. She enjoys quiet nature walks, good food, deep friendships, and quiet meditation.

Most likely to be caught by Finleigh snacking at midnight.
A large fuzzy white cat lounges lazily on a cardboard box. She has pink eyes and an orange noes. Her big paws are touching together and out of focus; they are all tufted with white fur between the toes.

Finleigh

Quality Inspector

Also known as Mommy's Little Monster, The Tigress, and Baby Elephant.

Finleigh is the emotional support behind Wildewood. None of our yarn bases arrive without a thorough inspection of both box and contents. A lover of all things fish, she also likes to model in her spare time.
A medium-size long-coated collie. She has a long brown snout and a black nose; she is looking at the camera. She is lying on the grass with warm afternoon sunlight behind her.

Vesper

Incoming Shipments Expert

Resident sweetheart. Vesper is full of joy and gentle love, dutifully nannying anything smaller than herself. She's the official Incoming Shipments alert--signature required who? Vesper is always ready for snacks (planned and unplanned) and watching the world go by with April as she dyes yarn in the garage. In her spare time, she enjoys rolling in the grass, lying on her back like a corpse, and romping with her Great Dane BF, Kong.

Lesley

Copyeditor & Proofreader
at
The Write Polish

Proofreader, mom, caregiver, package shipper, pot cleaner, animal wrangler--she does a little bit of everything. Except crafts. Don't ask her to do crafts; you'll get the blank stare of a lifetime. She's camera-shy and prefers for you to think of her as these deep red chrysanthemums that she just bought from Costco. Lesley has a flower tattoo on her ankle, like the wild thing that she is.

Chronic Representation.

April has had persistent Lyme disease for 20+ years and chronic migraines. Bedbound for most of her life, she finds that being a chronically ill dyer is not without its challenges and limitations--even more so with invisible symptoms. Seeing other chronically ill makers, business owners, and other public figures gives hope that we don’t necessarily have to be boxed in by our limitations. There are creative ways to approach all limitations, even if we’re constantly tweaking how to go about it. Illness does not define us. Our values do.

Raising Up Our Communities.

As of August 2021, Wildewood Fibers has donated a total of $2980 from yarn sales (both targeted and general) to organizations invested in our communities, general human well-being, and our Portland Community:

- Heart Of Dinner, $1011

- Black Resilience Fund, $400

- Books Around The Corner, $855

- Raphael House, $855 worth of books

- Rahab's Sisters, $103

- World Center Kitchen, $611

Respect & Dignity.

Regardless of age, race, sexual-orientation, gender-identity, religion, health, or emotional baggage, we aim to treat everyone with the respect and dignity that every human being deserves.

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