Baby alpaca

This week I got the softest and so pleasant to touch yarn! Natural undyed fibres of baby alpaca are supersoft and much warmer than wool. This luxurious yarn is spun of selective fibers of young alpaca (first shear), it is suitable for softest newborn items.
I've made a scarf for my daughter and few items for babies:

Baby alpaca circle scarf

  

Baby alpaca knit blanket

And small pieces of first knittings I felted into baby felted booties

Feltings and knittings

Unsuccessful knits don't have to be disassembled. They can be used as decor in felted booties

And some new Delida's knittings with my perfect model Maja. Chunky scarf :

More items in www.knitted.lt

How to make and add rubber soles to the slippers

I get a lot of requests to teach how to make shoes. Here is short lesson, how to make, glue and stitch soles to the bottoms of the felt slippers.

1. If you want to make slippers with the hard soles, you should make them on the shoe lasts. Put your slippers  tightly on the shoe lasts and only then add the soles. bottoms of the slippers must be stretched while doing this.

2. Circle your slippers and make the pattern of the soles. This paper pattern will be used to mark the place of the soles on the slippers and to cut soles of the soling material. This time I use yellow micro-porous rubber for the heel and beige natural rubber for the bottom of the sole:

Heel is not neccesary, but this time I was making slippers for my daughter Leda for her kindergarten and footwear had to comply with the requirements of orthopedic (small heel, hard counter).

You can use any soling materials - rubber sheets for soles, thick leather, cork, recycled tire rubber etc...

Heel is 1/2 length of the sole. Mark place of the soles very accurately on the both slippers - this kind of footwear doesn't have seems, so only your accuracy will guarantee, that soles will be in correct place.
3. Grind the detail of the heel with the sandpaper:

4. Apply contact adhesives on the bottoms of the slippers, let it dry. Apply second layer of contact adhesives on the heel area and on the detail of the heel. Use adhesives according to its instruction. Usually surfaces must dry for 10-20 minutes. Then accurately put parts together.
If you glue just one layer of the soles skip part 4 . 

5. I did it outside my studio, as contact adhesives for shoemakers are very toxic.
When parts are put together, struck with a hammer. Apply next layer of the glue - on the whole bottom of the slippers and on the soles. Let them dry and put together, struck with a hammer.  
If you won't be stitching your soles, our slippers are finished.
Soling material must be very elastic if you will glue it without stitching. Otherwise it will peel off while wearing.

6. Usually I stitch soles from the inside through the slipper and sole. But this time the size is too small. My stitching tool don't fit into the slipper, so I made an outer seem:

I use The speedy stitcher sewing awl. It is very useful as it tense stitches and I don't have to make it heard with the fingers. Use waxed thread for shoemaking.

Slippers are finished. 
Moccasins are similar "free form shoes" as the felted shoes, so most of the ideas, how to make soles I found in the tutorials of how to make moccasins :) 

Good luck with your projects!

Supplies for shoemaking you can find in my Etsy shop

New toys

A couple weeks ago I got myself a new 'toy' :) Knitting machine!

And the first item made of the softest virgin wool knit blanket for baby

Dress-o-mania

My girls begin to wear their silk felted dresses everyday and everywhere, even in the sandbox :) So they both get their new nuno felted dresses of cotton and wool for everyday.

I love to felt dresses - light like a butterflies, white as icing sugar and something warmer for upcoming Autumn.

For those, who love to wear them - welcome to a new Etsy shop section - felt girl dresses

Rožėta suknelė / The roses dress

Besiritant vasarai į pabaigą suvėliau rožėtą suknelę Majai. Šį kartą plonytis medvilnės audinys ir švelniausia 16 mikronų merino vilna - kartu šios medžiagos sukūrė nuostabią faktūrą, o dėvėti šį natūralių medžiagų švelnumyną - tikras malonumas:)










 

Summer is getting to the end... I felted the roses dress for my daughter Maja. It is made by nuno felt technique - made of very thin cotton and softest 16 mic merino wool - merged together they made a wonderful surface. It is a real pleasure to wear this soft dress, made of pure natural materials:)


Love it? You can order this nuno felted dress in my Etsy shop.

Vasaros konservai / Conserved Summer

Antra vasaros pusė - visuotinis konservavimo metas. Visi skuba jos išaugintas gėrybes marinuoti, užšaldyti, sudžiovinti, išvirti.

Šiais metais konservavau nuo pirmųjų vasaros spalvų pasirodymo. Galutinis rezultatas - nunofelt technika veltas merino vilnos ir  šilko apklotėlis. Visos jo spalvos gautos iš augalų - pienių, jonažolių, pomidorų lapų, karklų vytelių, juodųjų serbentų uogų. Švelnus ramus žemiškas vasaros spalvų palikimas.


The second part of the Summer is a global time of conservation in Lithuania:) All Summer goods need to be pickled, frozen, dried, cooked.

This year, I was preservating the colors:) The final result is a felted merino wool and silk blanket made by nunofelt technique. All the colors are derived from plants - dandelions, St. John's Worts, tomato leafs, willow twigs, black currant berries.
An earthy, calm color, soft conserved Summer. 
 
Adore naturals? You can find this felted silk and wool blanket in my Etsy shop.

Adore naturals? You can find this felted silk and wool blanket in my Etsy shop.

Avys / Sheep

Praėjusį savaitgalį leidau kaimuose. Mačiau daug avelių, negaliu pamiršti:) Mano sesers gražuolės augintinės:

Last weekend I spent in the countryside. I saw a lot of sheep, can't forget them:) Here are beauties of my sister's farm:

Avelės žaliose lankose - nuostabus vaizdas, kurį norisi matyti ir rodyti:) Tikriausiai todėl aveles perkėliau ir į naują apklotėlį - šįkart žalios kalvos šilkinės, avelės natūraliai garbanotos šilko ir vilnos garbanėlėmis.

Sheep in a green meadow - an amazing view that want to be seen and shown :) Probably that inspired me to transfer sheep to a blanket. This time the green hills I made of hand dyed silk chiffon, the sheep are made of natural curly locks of silk and wool.

Love it? :))) You can order this felted merino wool blanket "sheep" in my shop:)

Love it? :))) You can order this felted merino wool blanket "sheep"in my shop.

Baby blanket "Sea"

Nuno felted sea-themed baby blanket is pastel very light and soft.
I made it out of hand-dyed cotton gauze, silk and merino wool. There is description of the blanket felting in my earlier blogpost. This blanket is easier to make than felted silk patchwork, as cotton gauze is very rare weaved fabric and felts in easily. Just small tufts of wool should be layed under the silk ponge (the gulls). It makes easier to felt in the silk.


I dyed cotton in rare blue "clouds", when white wool felts through the cotton it becomes even lighter. Only waves, made of cotton panniers are brighter.

You can order this nuno felted baby blanket in my Etsy shop:

Happy felting and warm up your little ones with softest cute blankets:)

This felt wool blanket you can order inmy Etsy shop.