Fiber Fool

After discovering how cute Sur la Tête was when knit with positive ease rather than the standard 10-20% of negative ease usually used for hats, both Amanda and I wanted hats one size larger. Since our originals were in relatively “winter” colors we opted for spring colors for the second round. I used lunch at a local brew pub as a bribe for Jess, my sister-in-law, to come up with her boyfriend and model my hat while Amanda modeled her own.

When we were first scheduling the shoot the weather looked like it was going to be bright and sunny and timing was looking to be at nearly midday. I took that as the excuse I needed to finally invest in a proper 5-in-1 Diffuser/Reflector. I had been using my windshield visor from my car as a reflector, but I did not have a way to diffuse sunlight if any of our locations were to be in direct light. When I took the lighting class from Joe Coca he had made some fantastic diffusers with canvas stretching frames and mylar but I didn’t think a parent sized sheet of mylar would be large enough to cast shade for both Jess and Amanda in one shot so I decided it was time to retire my hacks and get a proper 5-in-1 Reflector in a largish size - 43″.

As it ended up, it was very overcast and rather chilly (had to tone down a red nose more than once in post-processing since we were out and about for nearly 2 hours). I was sort of disappointed since the original hats were also shot on a gray day (with snow). But, since I had my new reflector I was able to simulate sunlight a tad by using the gold surface to bounce my flash off of (the two pictures above). In that respect the weather was great and I never had to worry about the mile-high sun and the harsh and unflattering shadows it can cast around here. I did miss my usual assistant (DH had deadlines for work and mid-terms for grad school approaching fast) though so I did not put it to use as much as I would have liked. There are stands you can use for them, but with the 43″ size the slightest breeze will catch it so that was not an option last weekend. Though I think a stand is the next thing on my affordable wishlist as it would come in handy when I’m shooting in the house, that and a stand for my flash unit too, and… and… LOL!

You may note that I opted to add a touch of embellishment to my hat. I put a satin and velvet ribbon that I got at The Berry Patch in Niwot around the brim of my hat over the garter stitch section. Doing so added an almost slouch-like effect to the fit creating a third look! It took a bit off pondering and asking for input from many friends to decide how to attach the ribbon. I ultimately went with Deb’s suggestion to zig zag across the width of the ribbon and tack not too frequently. If you look at the image below you can see the inside of the hat where I’ve enhanced the thread to make it show up a bit more. I ended up tacking at the top transition between the satin and velvet at the middle of a leaf at the bottom transition at the end of the leaf all the way around. I still wonder if I was infrequent enough. I did leave a tad of slack in the thread so there is a bit of play in the ribbon as the knit fabric stretches.

And from the front both off and on…

Amanda’s is currently unadorned, but she has some big plans involving both ribbon and beads. I’m very intrigued to see the final result. She did opt for crystals for her buttons instead of pearls and it creates a fun and light look great for a spring or Easter hat…

Despite the clouds and cool weather I think we had a good time wandering around Old Town.