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

2 stretchy bind offs perfect for shawls

17 Feb 2014

Tips & Tricks

I don’t know about you, but I definitely have my favorite yarns, needle sizes, stitches, cast ons, and bind offs. I think most of us do. Binding off for shawls can sometimes be tricky. The bind off definitely needs to be stretchy, plus fast and neat are huge bonuses. My favorite bind off is the Decrease Bind Off, and my second favorite is Jeny’s Surprisingly Stretchy Bind Off. Decrease Bind Off The Decrease Bind Off is the bind off I include in all my patterns, and it’s the bind off I default to on the rare occasions I get to knit another designer’s pattern. To execute it you *k2togtbl, slip the stitch on your right hand needle back to your left hand needle, repeat from * until all your stitches are bound off. It ends up looking like this: You can find another explication, along with a good photo...

blocking is magic

12 Feb 2014

what's in the works, WIP Wednesdays

I’m spending a chunk of this week blocking the first four shawls of 2014. I’ve talked before about how blocking is the step my knitting projects get “stuck” on even though it might be my favorite part of knitting lace. I think blocking is magic. It opens up and evens out your stitches. It makes your fabric lighter, airier, and look more delicate. So I block even simple stockinette shawls. I don’t know if you can see the difference in this photo, but you can certainly feel the difference between the fabric of these two shawls. No related posts.

FO: Izar

07 Feb 2014

FOs

Twisting, turning, lacy cables galore. The pattern for Izar is available, over on the Verdant Gryphon’s site! Three skeins of Eidos a fingering/sock yarn in two colors, or one if that’s more your thing, a set of US 5 (3.75mm) needles, the pattern, and you’re set to go. It feels like this pattern has been in the works forever, getting held up by one thing after another, it feels great(!) knowing it’s available! Pattern: Izar Yarn: The Verdant Gryphon, Eidos 100% superwash merino. Colorways: “Fenris″ (MC) & “Blinding Polyphemus” (CC) Yardage: 3 skeins; two main color, 1 contrast color Fiber Source: The Verdant Gryphon Needles: 3.75 mm (US 5s) 40″ circulars Come over get your pattern, plus some scrumptious yarn! No related posts.

Welcome! I'm Holly Chayes.