A Hoodie and a Hat

Woo hoo! Karlia's Pacific Hoodie is done! This was the third hoodie for my oldest niece (5 1/2 yrs).

I finally figured a better way of doing the zipper and it installed very easily.

Here's the final result:

Tonight I will be casting on a the Südtirolean Hat for my Dad for his birthday on Boxing Day. He's almost impossible to buy a gift for due to his problematic eyesight, bad hearing, and lack of hobbies. And no I can't get him more clothing - the man will never wear his way through the obscene pile of shirts, sweaters and socks he's been gifted throughout the years!

I do know that he enjoys skiing with my brother and his grandchildren, so I decided he needs a new hat. Like most men, he loves black and gray, so I've designed a hat just for him using charcoal as the background colour.

There will be much history knitted into this hat.

My Dad was born in the small village of Völlan, (province of Bolzano) in the South Tryol region of north east Italy. This region was part of Austria before WWI, but after the war it became a part of Italy.

All European villages, towns, cities, counties and provinces have a Coat of Arms. The Coat of Arms for Südtirol is an eagle. The eagle symbolises strength, courage, farsightedness and immortality. It is considered to be the king of the air and the messenger of the highest Gods.

So I am knitting this eagle into Dad's hat. I used an online software program called KnitPro to turn the picture into a knitting stitch pattern. Then I imported it into Photoshop and reduced the colour bleeds and colours to just three - red, gold and black.

I'll post pics as soon as I have some!