Jeanne Carver had just completed chores at the Imperial Stock Ranch when the phone rang.

It was a clear, beautiful July 2012 day in Oregon's high desert. Carver sat on her porch with her phone.

The caller got to the point, firing questions at Carver about the sheep ranch and wool operation she runs with her husband, Dan Carver. The caller asked so many detailed questions about Imperial's wool yarn that Carver figured she was talking with an independent yarn shop – the ranch sells its yarn to 300 shops across the country. But she finally asked the caller's identity.

"I'm with product development with Ralph Lauren in New York."

"Are you kidding me?"

"Nope, I'm sitting in an office on Madison Avenue."

"That's amazing. Can you hear my sheep?"

The product developer with the New York-based brand with nearly $7 billion in annual sales, speaking from one of the most populated places on earth to one of the least populated, said yes, he could hear the Imperial Stock Ranch sheep.

"That's amazing," the buyer agreed.

That conversation led to meetings in Central Oregon and a partnership that culminated Tuesday with

that every article of Ralph Lauren clothing for the 2014 U.S. Winter Olympic athletes in Sochi, Russia, including their opening and closing ceremony uniforms and their Olympic Village gear, has been made by domestic craftsman and manufacturers. The apparel brand tapped more than 40 vendors, from ranchers in the rural West to yarn spinners in Pennsylvania to sewers in New York's Garment District, for the outfits unveiled Tuesday.

But for now, the ranch is basking in the glow of its Ralph Lauren association, which has doubled yarn sales for 2013. More Ralph Lauren business is possible, she said Tuesday.

"They brought us into the fold and gave us all of their expertise," Jeanne Carver said.

-- Allan Brettman