OT: šakotis

A short off topic :)
Last weekend me with my mom and friends baked traditional Lithuanian Šakotis in our back yard.

When I was a teenager, my parents used to bake these beautiful big cakes for weddings, other big feasts. My sister and I were their helpers. I've separated thousands of egg whites from the yolks those days :)))
Few years ago, we revived old big cooking equipment, but it seemed too big. So my husband have made a small outdoor "grill" suitable to make Šakotis. Loooots of eggs, butter, sugar, work and we had a beautiful delicious result:

Amber sunrise

Gintarinis saulėtekis

Lithuanian feltmakers Summer camp 2013

Last summer Lithuanian feltmakers joined into association. This year we had a great event of our association - Lithuanian feltmakers summer camp. Skilful felmakers participated there 4 days. We shared our skills, painted pieces with plants, joined all our ideas and fantasies into one big common piece of art – 3D panel "the bottom of the lake"

The whole story is here


Here are few moments:

Felted Snowboots

Felted wool shoes for real Winter

Boiled wool

Boiled wool projects are my new interest. I wanted to make booties with a high top, but the firm wool felt didn't satisfy me. Feltmakers in Lithuania like to use the knitted tops for their felted slippers, here is one I which admire: Onstail by Ramune. Few days ago I was looking for a beautiful warm items for a treasury list and almost all of them were Lithuanian. I don't know if our taste coincides or Lithuanian feltmakers really are the best:) 
So, a thought came to my mind, that I can use knitted boot tops, but before adding them to the clogs, I can felt them. Knit is too loose, but felting makes it soft and wind resistant. I've bought 100% wool yarn of natural colors (made of the same kinds of wool, which I use for my felt clogs):

I remembered a lessonby Liecel Tverli Scully , knitted a big 100% wool leg warmers and tried to felt them in my washing machine, which is automatic and cannot be opened during the process... I will not show what I got out from there at the end of washing :)))... Don't do it, the process of fulling should be under you control! Then I found the tips for boiled wool . I've tried that too:

My husband came out angry from his office looking for the source of the terrible smell... Ok, I dropped the experiments and felted the knits by hand.  While felting, knitted leggings shrink twice. I am satisfied by the results:

The leg warmers appeared to be so comfortable, that I couldn't take them off after taking pictures:) They look nice with the shoes as well as with the clogs, so I decided not to sew them to the clogs, but leave as woolen leg warmers :

Felted wool boots

There are a several ways to felt the wool. Usually I am using wet felting method - I lay loose wool fibers, wet them and rub. This time I combined this and another method - it is called boiled wool felt. Wool must be knitted and then felted using boiling water. I've added boiled wool tops on my felted clogs and voila, I get slipper-boots!

Felted boots white-blue

Grey felted boots

And me:)

P. S.
While taking photos of these shoes, I was making plans about the soles for outdoor wearing. The reason for this is...:

Do you love sheepskin boots? These are also made of sheep, but those sheep are still alive!

Baltic Amber

Today it is the first anniversary of my WoolenClogs shop! I am glad that my  wool felted clogs (mostly made of Lithuanian sheep wool) reached my customers in all over the world:) They were shipped to Europe, US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Brazil etc. I wish a warm wearing to all my customers!

I have just finished the second pair of the clogs with Baltic amber. Amber is often titled the “Lithuanian gold” – it is something uniquely Lithuanian. And natural :) I like how it harmonizes with the wool.
White felted clogs with an amber  - we have made them together with my sister Eigile. She is on vacation from her school now. We had a real crafters workshop at my house:)
The brown felted clogs imitate carved wooden clogs. "Carvings" are traditional Lithuanian ornaments.  

Žiema ant nosies / Winter is coming soon

The first snow showed up yesterday. Time to prepare for the Winter!


It is very important to keep your feet warm, the best way to do that is to wear organic wool felt shoes . I made them of just sheared and carded rough Lithuanian sheep wool. They are very warm and massages the feet. An ankle of the shoes is knitted from the merino wool (also Lithuanian), which I spinned with my antique spinning wheel 

I've mentioned the first snow - here it is:

Snow covered my rose garden... My kids were making a snowman today:))) Beautiful Winter, but I will miss my roses and warmth. Thinking of that, I have made a wool felt wrist warmers which reminds of a pink rose petals. Batt for these warmers I made with my drum carder. I've mixed pink and white shades of different fibers. 50% softest merino wool, about 40% silk and a bit of ramie and bamboo fibers. Wrist warmers are warm, very thin, light and soft like a rose petals:

Now all my thoughts are going to concentrate on... Upcoming Christmas rush! Like a year ago, I will help Santa Clause to make warm wishes come true:) Here are the first signs - these warm beauties are preparing to fly to Japan: