Colourful Playdough Tutorial and Recipe

Hello Friends,

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend! Thank you to everyone who stopped by and wished us a happy Easter:) We had a lovely weekend, we visited with family, went to see the Moscow Circus, this was amazing and we also went bicycle riding...

Jen has been making colourful playdough for her little brother, Kye. We are going to make all the colours for the days of the week... so far we have yellow, purple, green and orange. We just need to make red and then we are finished:) Enjoy the tutorial...

Playdough Recipe:

You will need:

1.5 cups of flour

1.5 Table spoons of cream of tartar

1.5 Table spoons of oil

Half a cup of salt

1.5 cups of water

Food colouring.

(If you want to make more, just double up the recipe:)

Put all the ingredients in a pot on a medium heat and stir constantly.

Keep stirring until you notice that the dough is coming away from the sides and is fully mixed. This is very important, otherwise, it will be too sticky. It shouldn't stick to your hands at all. When you notice it coming away from the pot and attaching to the spoon, it is ready:)

Share the Love Heart Swap:

Our Heart Swap is well underway, there are so many crafty mamas taking part, it is wonderful to see all of your  amazing talent:)
If you would like to take part, feel free to email me lindadawkins@mweb.co.za or Heidi gerry@mweb.co.za and send us your full name, address, blog link and email address and we will partner you up with a swap partner:)

We also have a Flickr group for participants to post photos of their beautiful heart projects:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/sharetheloveheartswap/

Natural Kids Giveaway on the 15th of April:

I am also very excited to tell you all that on the 15th of April, I will be hosting a Natural Kids Giveaway:) If you would like to see who Natural Kids are visit here. You can also click on the button in my sidebar to see this amazing group of talented artists:) Don't forget to stop by on the 15th for their lovely giveaway:)

Have a wonderful day,
Warmly
Linda
75P3M5BTMN86

Happy Easter!

To everyone who stops by here, thank you so much for visiting:) I wish you and your families a wonderful Easter:)

Have a lovely day...

Warmly Linda and Family:)

Portrait Saturday...

Dear Friends,

Thank you so much to everyone who posted on Friendship Friday yesterday, it was an honour to have you share your creativity here:) I will make this space avaliable each Friday for anyone who would like to share their wonderful creative gifts... 

This morning was amazing, the mist hung in the air and as I walked outside I could actually see the water droplets floating by... all too soon the sun rose and drank it all away, but what a glorious day we have had...

It was a perfect day for spinning... I haven't spun for quite some time and I decided today was the day. Richard took the children out this morning and I had a few hours to myself. I went and found a lovely camel silk roving, sat in my workroom and spun. This roving was so smooth to spin and the colours were like food for my soul...

I spun the entire roving, it was a peaceful meditation, just the gentle sound of my spinningwheel turning...

Wishing you all a peaceful Saturday, thanks for stopping by:)
Warmly
Linda

Friendship Friday

Dear Friends,

I thought it would be a lovely idea to start a tradition here on Natural Suburbia on a Friday called Friendship Friday. Here there will be a platform avaliable for everyone to post their tutorials that they have created, it can be a recent one or even one from the past that you would like to share. It can be any kind of tutorial that is craft, knitting, crocheting, spinning, dyeing etc.. related... To take part, just enter your blog name and blog address link below (including the http://) and we can all enjoy one anothers creativity:)

Thank you so much for taking part in Friendship Friday,
Warmly
Linda

The Next Installment of our Travelling Easter Tree Tutorials...

Hello everyone,

We are having such rainy weather at the moment, I love the rain... I am so looking forward to winter here, sitting by the warm fire, being all cozy and of course knitting... :)

And now for the next installment of Heidi and my Easter Tree Tutorials... I thought I would make some knitted Easter eggs for the tree:)

As you can see Heidi has added homemade Easter biscuits that are divine and you can find the recipe for them here. I have added solid and striped knitted Easter eggs, some I have knitted in cotton and bamboo and others I have knitted in Mohair.

Knitted Easter Egg Tutorial:

I have knitted these eggs with The Magic Loop technique:

You Tube Videos:

You Tube link for how to knit with the Magic Loop.
Here is a You Tube video link on how to change colours while knitting in the round.

Knitted Easter Egg Pattern:

Cast on 9 stitches on circular needles and divide up as seen in the photo above to start knitting:)
Knit 1 round
Knit into the front and back of each stitch in next round increasing your stitches to 18.
Knit 1 round
Knit into front and back of each stitch in next round increasing your stitches to 36.
Knit 6 rounds
Change colour, knit 4 rounds,

Change colour, knit 4 rounds,

Change colour, knit 4 rounds,

Change colour

(Knit 5 stitches knit 2 together) continue this across the entire round and knit 1 stitch at the end of the round.
Knit 1 round.
(Knit 5 stitches, knit 2 together) continue this across the ertire round, knit 3 stitches on the end.
Knit 1 round.
(Knit 5 stitches, knit 2 together) continue this across the round, knit 1 stitch on the end.
Knit 1 round.
(Knit 2 together) continue all across the round.
(Knit 2 together) continue all across the round, knit 1 on end.

(If you just want to knit a solid egg, just knit through all the rows on the same colour:)
Finishing off:

Break your thread and thread your yarn onto a wool needle and thread your stitches from your circular neeldes onto your wool needle and pull tight to close the opening. I normally fill the egg from this end and make sure the the wide base is firm and then fill the rest of the egg. Close both ends by threading tight in a circle with your thread and pulling tightly closed.

Roll your egg in your hands to get the required egg shape, and there you have an Easter Egg!

I just tied a little thread of rainbow yarn through the top of my egg so it could hang in the tree, you could also crochet a chain if you like.

Here is the actual link with photos of my knitted Easter Egg tutorial:)

If you have knitted any Easter eggs from this pattern already and blogged them, please share your blog post link with us in the comments, we would all love to see your creations:)

Share the Love Heart Swap:

We are in full swing with our Share the Love Heart Swap, thank you to everyone who has sent in their names and details, if you haven't heard from us yet you will soon and we will partner you up with a swap partner:) If you would still like to join, please do and don't forget to send in your name, address and blog link to myself lindadawkins@mweb.co.za or Heidi at gerry@mweb.co.za and we will partner you up for the swap.

To read more about the swap, view here.

Happy Thursday friends, from rainy South Africa,
Warmly
Linda