Father's Day

Today is Father's Day, so I've had my parents over today for a braii (barbeque), and general daddy appreciation. My father and I have had our ups and downs over the years, but deep down I'm a daddy's girl and our relationship has grown stronger during my adult years. In short, I dote on him. He's my hero and I love him dearly.

I find it very easy to think of things to make for my mother, but really struggle when it comes to my dad. They both appreciate useful gifts, rather than decorative, and it's hard to come up with ideas for him.

He loves gypsy tart, which takes him right back to his school days, so despite the lack of picture, a gypsy tart was duly baked and given to him today. This is a stupidly easy recipe. Blind bake a pastry case in a flan dish and let it cool. Beat 12oz dark muscavado sugar with a 14oz tin of evaporated milk - for 10 minutes (this bit is important!) and bung in the oven, gas mark 6 for 10 minutes. Chill and eat. My poor food processor does not like being switched on for 10 minutes, and 8 minutes in started to spark. I hope I've not blown the motor, but too afraid to check and confirm right now!

Onto the woolly, yarny, scrummy part of his present. I have some Freedom Spirit yarn in green, that's 100% wool and will felt beautifully. So I started knitting...

I really love this beginning part, with the little square neatly framed with the dpns, but didn't pause for toooo long to admire it before knitting onwards, testing to see if it'll fit around the (pink) grapefruit and lime soap...

Clickety, click more rows added, another twisty cable emerges... Nearly there - this soap is so soft, the needles are beating it up as I'm knitting and it is sticky too...weird soap!

Nearly there - this soap is so soft, the needles are beating it up as I'm knitting and it is sticky too...weird soap!

Weave the yarn end in and add a little label so Dad knows what it is and tada! Pictured next to the card I made him out of various papers I had lying around. I drew the tree onto card and then used images from a wildlife magazine stuck on top for the bark and leaves. Snipped them out and stuck them down onto stripy embossed white card :)

I may have forgotten to add that it's *pink* grapefruit and lime soap...because it doesn't sound manly. He'll never know the soap itself has a definite pink tinge to it too ;)

Here it is all wrapped up in dotty paper and gingham ribbon. Now, I'm rather precious over my gingham ribbons - I love them a lot. Is it very wrong that I knew he'd unwrap it here and give me the ribbon back, so that's why I used it? Shhhhh!

Pattern for the soap sweater is this one. It's a free pattern for a basic plain soap sweater. If you want to know the cable twist I've used, I've put it on my project page.

I did have to explain to him what a soap in a sweater is supposed to be for, and reassure him that it really is a Very Good Idea and not Something I Should Be Committed For. He went home smiling and with a full tummy - I guess I can't ask for more than that :)