Alpaca Direct News and Perspectives

We're featured this Month in Fortune Small Business!

Check out the article this month in Fortune Small Business / CNN-Money Magazine featuring us as one of the top "Innovative" retailers for our use of customer reviews and letting our customers share their experience with each other.  We value each customer's feedback and use reviews to improve our products and our service.  We just sent out a separate customer satisfaction survey yesterday and 95.62% of you would refer us to a friend for online shopping.  Thanks and we'll keep trying hard to deliver value and earn your business! 

Jim and Kelley

Virtual Tour Of Our Expanded Retail Store

Here's some pictures of our expanded retail store.  We have plenty of parking out front and we're open Mon-Sat 10-5pm.  Come by and see us!  

Over 2,000 yarns to choose from including specialty ranch yarn from our local ranches!  

Here's a selection of over 100 alpaca scarves and our Super Soft Peruvian Pima Cotton PJ's 

Here's a nice work area for classes and projects.  We can also play our knitting videos for you on the big screen TV.  

Try on some Alpaca Slippers, a luxurious Alpaca Sweater or our large selection of Dahlgren Alpaca Socks

T

Our Expanded Retail Store opens on Sept 1st!

We've doubled our space in Brentwood and leased the adjacent suite (170) so...that's good news for our local customers.  Our expanded retail store will be opening on Sept 1st with a wide array of products available to see and purchase including over 2,000 different yarns! .  We've added a classroom training area and are lining up a full schedule of classes on Knitting, Spinning, Crochet and Felting.  Stay tuned for a download of the finalized schedule!  

We've Named Our Little Black Alpaca

Thanks so much to everyone who participated in the contest to name our alpaca. With over 200 names suggested we had quite a variety to make our final choice.  So... we have just finished a family gathering and unamimously decided... so now he has a name and it is Dante.  Thanks to Chase B. who posted the suggestion on June 22nd at 5:09 pm.  You've won a $25 Gift certificate to our online store Alpaca Direct   Thanks to everyone else for all the creativity and fun in helping our cute little alpaca have a nice name.  Next year you'll see if first year fleece be available as a buttery black alpaca yarn direct from our ranch! 

Help Name Our Alpaca - Contest Ends June 30th!

We'd like help in naming our newest addition to our alpaca ranch. Here's some characteristics about this little boy who was born a couple of weeks ago. He is coal black with soft, silky fiber that we'll eventually shear and sell as yarn on our website. He's really fast running around the pasture, likes to pronk, is very curious, is very proud in his stance like his father (Snowmass Conquistador). He is very independant but still likes to stay by his mom (Daphne) in the evenings. There's more pictures on our ranch website photo gallery  So here's the deal,  suggest a name in the comments section of this blog along with reason.  The winner will get a $25 gift card from Alpaca Direct.  Winner (and name) to be announced on July 1st, 2009.   

New Alpaca Yarn from our Ranch is available

We just got our Alpaca Yarn from our annual "Shearing Day" back from the mill. This year the alpaca yarn looks great and as always our limited supply will likely run out soon. This yarn makes a great shawl or scarf project to give to someone special. In addition we provide you with a picture of the Alpaca to include in your gift or as a momento. Better yet, come out and visit our ranch and see "Your" special alpaca in person!
Here's Annabelle...

Get Paid To Tweet!

We're hiring someone to manage all our social networking stuff. If you're an expert knitter and also very comfortable with all the social networking sites (Twitter, Facebook, etc) Please apply here: http://bit.ly/nJqUH

You Can Now Follow Us On Twitter

As part of providing you another tool to communicate and connect with us, we've set up a special Twitter account so you can follow us, hear about specials and provide us feedback on how we're doing.   You'll find us on twitter as alpacadirect.  

We lost a baby Alpaca yesterday...

Annabelle was a little over a month overdue with her Cria from Guns'N'Roses a famous herdsire on the west coast.  We were looking forward to welcoming him to the world.  Unfortunately he was breached in the womb and we were unable to save him.  My cousin from New York was out visiting our ranch with her cute little 7 year old daughter.  We were so much hoping to have a  cute little baby alpaca waiting for her when she arrived but things didn't turn out as planned.  Later that night she drew this imressive drawing (especially for 7 year old!) with Pocohantas asking her daughter Annabelle if she was alright and a tear coming from Annie's eye to show the sadness of her loss.  I think this drawing from little Lison says it all...

Is it time for you to visit Peru?

I just found this link on CNN.com where people have posted photos and stories of their travels to Peru.Our travels to Peru reflect the words and feeling mentioned in the photos (as well as bring in wonderful memories).  Most of our products on Alpaca Direct originate in this wonderful country since this is were a vast majority of the world's Alpacas live. The people of Peru are kind and gracious. The diversity of the terrain and culture is incredible.  Many of the native skills (like weaving and knitting) are still handed down between generations as a part of the unique Peruvian culture.  Many of our products are hand-made in small villages throughout Peru and provide sustainable incomes and help to keep alive the traditions of knitting and fiber arts among the Peruvian people. We hope you enjoy the photos and someday have the opportunities we've had to visit this country and spend time with its people.