Holly Chayes

Welcome! I'm Holly Chayes.

This online space has been around in one form or another since 2010, it focuses on making, creativity and living a curious life, plus a lot of clothing.

Some of the projects I've worked on in the past 10+ years include...

Talking About Clothes with Holly Chayes

An interview podcast that's all about clothing (and also, not *really* about clothing at all). Find all the details and listen to conversations about comfort, style, change and shopping here. Or search for Talking About Clothes with Holly Chayes wherever you listen to podcasts.

Who Wears Who?

The Self-Made Wardrobe Project

Predecessor to Who Wears Who, a year-long challenge in 2014/2015 where I only wore clothes I made. That year would have been a lot easier if the clothes had magically made themselves. Learn more about The Self-Made Wardrobe Project and explore the archives here.

The Shawl Geometry Book Series

Enough shawl shapes to keep you knitting for a lifetime. A multi-year exploration of math, shape and space in knitting, where I documented traditional shawl shaping, and iterated on those traditions to create new recipes of shawl shaping. Ultimately this lead to 75+ shapes, and 400+ pages of common and uncommon shawl shaping instructions. This project was inspired by a dozen individual shawl designs, each encapsulating a love of geometric lace design. You can find The Shawl Geometry Series here.

Thank you for being here with me. –Holly

Shawl Edges: Smooth or Pointy?

17 Mar 2014

Tips & Tricks

A shawl isn’t done until it’s blocked. Not only does blocking make your fabric look better, it gives you the opportunity to add another characteristic to your shawl. The simplest blocking question is about your shawl’s edge. Do you want it smooth or pointy? Smooth. Pointy. Smooth. Pointy. Do you want the edge of your shawl smooth or pointy? ______ These photos are all part of a shawl collection I’m working on. Sign up for the mailing list to know as soon as it comes out. No related posts.

spinning, photography, recovery & secret projects

12 Mar 2014

what's in the works

The shawl that got a couple inches ripped out has since recovered, and been put on hold for a secret project I started knitting on I’d love to show you but can’t (but I love it and it’s beautiful). So I pulled out some spinning one day so I’d be able to show you forward motion on something. And I took the photos for this shawl collection, which I can’t wait to show. No related posts.

How to Thread a Lifeline

10 Mar 2014

Tips & Tricks

So if you follow me on instagram or twitter you might have caught the ripping incident that happened last week. The short story: I cursed a lot and ripped out a couple inches of knitting. The slightly longer story: I had (for once) inserted a lifeline in my knitting. BUT had to rip out to a point before I had threaded the waste yarn. 🙁 WHAT IS A LIFELINE ANYWAY? A lifeline is a piece of waste yarn that you thread through a row of your knitting, so that if you have to rip back, or if you drop a stitch, the lifeline will catch your stitches. Lifelines prevent your stitches from unraveling back to your cast on. CHOOSING YARN FOR A LIFELINE The best lifelines are ones that are skinny, smooth, and highly visible. I usually use whatever lace weight or fingering weight yarn I have hanging around, but...

Welcome! I'm Holly Chayes.