Seamstress

January 20, 2016 By Lee Leave a Comment

Finding Whispirit’s 2016 Groove

All of us at Whispering Spirit Alpacas are concluding a much needed break over the winter holidays which graced us with travels to Spain & France, time with parts of our family and opportunities to ponder ideas for our Whispirit 2016 creations. Traveling gives us a great chance to change our rhythm, take in new vistas, and be inspired by other artisans.

Now returned and as we settle back into running the ranch and designing new garments for Whispirit, we are impressed again by how much creativity and productivity there is in New Mexico, our chosen home and how many new ideas we have bouncing around. New Mexico is where our imaginations and our dreams take shape.

As we collect with our creative partners who help us pull our ideas into Whispirit products, we are excited to take on several new projects, which we will describe in future blogs

We will be deepening our focus on eco-friendly textile production.
Our new fabric design which is light and airy.
A “design your own” section of the web store and a gallery featuring our customers creations.

We are excited and hope you will follow us throughout this year.

December 22, 2015 By Lee Leave a Comment

Fleece Navidad

‘Tis a great holiday season. At Whispirit, we have been delighted to provide unique, American made, super warm, and extra cuddly gifts to customers who are gifting in celebration of their special holidays, as well as customers who gifted something special to his or herself. We have especially enjoyed working with those of you who have envisioned a gift for a very special person and helped us to understand how you envisioned the fabric and the design. We learn from each of you.

At Whispering Spirit Alpacas ranch, we additionally have special celebrations during this season. We celebrate the birthdays of our dedicated ranch hand, both of our sons, a very special significant other, and Lee’s mother. Christmas is a holiday in which we both delight, with all of its gaiety, lights, close family and friends and, of course, those wonderful holiday special foods.

We do feel a bit like the elves of our family traditions, working work hard setting up holiday gatherings. Then we come together to cook, to celebrate and to relax with satisfaction. We hope you do, too.

We are so grateful for the many who helped us bring our product to you and wish our seamstresses, fiber mills, alpacas, ranch hand, designers, media specialists, photographers, store clerks, boutiques, alpacas, Great Pyrenees, friends, family, barn cats and rescue dogs for being part of our holiday season. Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa, Happy Festivus and Happy Holidays to all and to all a good rest.

Lee and Sandy

December 15, 2015 By Lee Leave a Comment

Saki, Cisco and their Collaborative “Brown and White Chocolate” Fabric

“How do you make that?” asked the excited purchaser of the lovely Kasode jacket you see pictured. It’s a frequent question.

Laurie Schatzberg said, “Thanks for a fantastic afternoon of shopping, and communing with you all … And those wonderful dogs and alpacas! I’ll be back for sure!” Doesn’t she look great?

First, of course, one white and one brown alpaca had to be sheared. In this case, rich white fleece from Saki and the rich chocolate brown from Cisco. Both are lovely accoyo alpacas.

Second, as with all raw fiber, we skirt it here at the ranch and then ship it to one of the several fiber mills we use. In this case, and because we want a blended fiber and they have proven their creative talent in the past, we ship to Evergreen Fiber Mill, Woodinville, WA, where the all white and all brown fibers are combined into lovely, striated, batts.

Those batts are then returned to us and we needle felt them to a silk scrim. We really enjoy the results of blending these two rich colors together while maintaining the uniqueness of each. As a result of the richness we couldn’t help but call it “Brown and White Chocolate.”

As the Kasode is one of our regular designs, we delivered the fabric to Heather Briggs who did the expert sewing. Sandy then added the beautiful stenciling via materials she obtained this summer at Diane Ericson’s Design Outside the Line retreat in Taos, NM, and ….. Voila!

Another admirer of this jacket has placed an order and that one is just about finished. Happily Saki and Cisco produced enough fleece for several jackets. But not an unlimited supply and the animals won’t be sheared again until May. We already have another jacket in the making so go to the Whispirit Shop and order your own! Special orders are no more expensive. Or order this sweet bag made from the same fabric. We can also make this fabric by the yard for you.

Thanks Saki and Cisco!

December 7, 2015 By Lee 1 Comment

‘Tis the Season and We Are Working So You Can Take It Eas(ier)

Indeed, “Tis the Season.” We each know it is coming, and next time you look up, holidays are upon us. At Whispirit we’ve put our effort into trying to make your shopping choices just a little bit easier. We’ve been spending our time in the Fabric Design Center (for those loyal readers of this blog you know that to be formerly our garage) and getting our holiday elves whipping up a wide assortment of accessories that will complement the wardrobe of those special and hard to purchase for on your shopping list.

We have newly created a number of our very popular felted hats we introduced a year ago and simply flew out the door. Heather Briggs really got into the spirit of the season and designed the most adorable mini-bags and the cutest finger-less gloves that will complement any “stepp’n out” outfit. We have also stocked up on the men’s caps and vests which have suddenly been in demand.

With holiday purchasing budgets in mind we have created items between $31 and $76. We also chose this season to offer 50% off of these great gift ideas … men’s vests, tote bags, and more at 50% off.

We also know that buying a specific garment or accessory can be a stressful experience so just in time for this season you can purchase a gift card for that stress-creating purchase and let them pick out the right style and color. Plus we are providing free shipping for this holiday season.

After all, who on your gift list regularly opens his or her closet and frets that they entirely too much alpaca wear?

Even if you don’t find what you need from Whispirit, please buy local and buy American made.

October 20, 2015 By Lee Leave a Comment

Fall Preparations for Winter

This year, fall on New Mexico’s desert high plains has been unseasonably warm, pushing thoughts of winter into the distant future. But, the signs of winter’s approach are everywhere, and they should be unmistakable. 365 bales of hay just arrived in the barn to the delight of the alpacas. This cache is intended to get us through the winter and beyond the first cut of next year’s grass hay.

Three cords of firewood are looking gray and seasoned, ready for the recently cleaned wood stove.

Gardens have lost their vibrant colors, except for the vines, which turned an electric orange.

All the fields are brown and the tumbleweeds are stacking up along our fence lines, waiting to be made into the Southwest’s version of snowmen. Our alpacas are getting that fluffy, cuddly look that assures them of being good and warm through the next several months, and us that there will be another fleece harvest come spring.

Signs of winter’s approach abound in the Fabric Design Center as well. Sandy is now calling for double sheets of fabric from which to design our garments that much more snugly and warm. White, green, and light fawn fabrics of last summer have given way to blacks, dark grays and browns for the alluring look of winter and warmth. Fall’s signs are everywhere telling us winter is on its way. Are you prepared?