As we wrote in this blog last year, the Fourth of July is Lee’s favorite holiday. Besides celebrating our country’s birthing process it’s that time when he reflects on the year just past. This year we are doing our reflection in pictures. It has been a year of great delight, friendship, health and gratitude. […]
Love Hate Relationship with Skirting
One of our least favorite — hence most avoided — part of the fiber processes is skirting. This is where we take the fiber shorn from our alpacas, lay it out on a mesh table and pick through it by hand. The hand-picking process removes vegetation, matted or soiled fibers, second cuts (short small pieces […]
Join the Fashion Revolution in Asking “Who Made my Clothes?”
April 18th, through April 24th is the third annual Fashion Revolution Week. Organized by people who are part of the the apparel production world — designers, textile makers, sewists, models, production houses — the purpose of this week is to educate people all around the world about the human suffering, the waste and the environmental […]
Soigné d/b/a Slow Fashion
This weekend one of our sons, Chris, who did his culinary training at Le Cordon Bleu and has worked in fine dining restaurants in NYC, Boston and Girona, Spain explained the subtlety of the wonderful French verb “soigné(e)” to distinguish between fine dining restaurants and excellent restaurants. Fine dining restaurants are staffed, physically designed, and completely orchestrated […]
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 […]
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 […]
Evergreening Our Fiber
On our first day in the Seattle area, we visited Evergreen Fleece Processing LLC mill which has been processing our fiber in batts for more than three years. We had never visited Evergreen mill before, although we have spent time with owners Chuck and Lynn Armstrong at several FeltLOOM gatherings. In addition to owning and operating equipment […]
Artisan Fabrics — Creating A New Fabric Tradition
Whispirit’s Artisan Fabrics are first and foremost felt. It is a non-woven, tangled natural mammal fiber textile. We consistently have people express confusion because they have seen alpaca and merino felt before, but have never seen a fabric like Whispirit’s. If you haven’t had the opportunity to touch and feel our fabrics, let us describe our […]
Labor Day – Celebrating Everyone Who Makes It Happen
Labor Day, the first Monday of September, is a celebration of the American worker. Although the holiday is often associated with organized labor, to me it is a time to recognize those individuals who roll up their sleeves and get their hands dirty making things happen in unison with others. Yep, Labor Day is another […]
The Alpaca Batt Channel
So I imagine you have been waiting to hear what happens next after Sandy is done skirting… Once we have separated good from unusable fleece (at least for our purposes), we bag, box and ship the fleece to one of the mills we use for processing. Because we require the processing to be done […]
Dog Days of Summer
Thank you. We are humbled and flattered by the increasing numbers reading our blog and appreciate those of you sending us questions. We are passionate about our alpaca, their fleece and our fabrics. So don’t hesitate sending your inquires, we love to answer them. Last week several of you wanted to know if things are […]
Ocean Blue — A Sneak Peek
As summer monsoon rains move into New Mexico awakening long dormant wild flowers, our Whispirit team is already at work perfecting new designs for fall. We are particularly excited by a new design for our Swing Jacket that Sandy and seamstress extraordinaire Heather Briggs recently produced. (That’s Heather in her studio with the new design.) […]
American Made at Whispirit
What a coincidence. Launching our new website and this inaugural blog happens at the same time Consumer Report’s issue devoted to made in America hits the newsstand and Martha Stewart announces that the 2015 Made in America awards are now open for nominations. As well, the 4th of July is just a few days away. […]
