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

Why do you knit?

05 Feb 2014

thoughts & things

Why do you knit ? I knit because it’s magic. It’s transformation. Turning one thing into another. String into stitches, stitches into fabric, and fabric into a picture. Why do you write? I write because it’s magic. Stringing words into phrases, that communicate ideas, that you can then read, and understand. Linking my brain to yours, using your eyes, my fingers, some pixels, and words as many words as we can get our hands on. Why do you dream? I dream because dreams are where acts of magic are born. Why do you dream? No related posts.

a collection about possibility

29 Jan 2014

Upcoming Projects, what's in the works, WIP Wednesdays

knitting like a woman obsessed. Riffing off of the idea of instant gratification from yesterday. I adore a project I can sink my teeth into. A project that inspires nothing short of commitment, adoration, and borderline obsession. A project to sink your teeth into. It’s part of why I knit shawls, they aren’t quick by any stretch of the imagination, and they don’t requite piecing like most sweaters do. No second sleeve syndrome with a shawl. Just a beginning, and an end, with an expanse of fabric to play with in the middle. I’m currently working on a collection that’s pulling out this kind of obsessed focus. The kind of focus where you can’t concentrate on anything else. The kind of project that has you staying up late and waking up early to work on it. I see a small pattern collection accompanied by lots of writing. A collection centered...

Instant gratification

28 Jan 2014

Administraaavia!, thoughts & things

Instant gratification and knitting. I’m a huge fan of instant gratification. But when we talk about instant gratification and knitting we’re usually talking about “instant gratification projects,” the projects you can start and finish in a sitting, quick-y little projects that give you a finished object “NOW.” The projects that are the antithesis of big shawls on tiny needles, I like knitting. But really even these tiny projects aren’t instant gratification. Four or five hours for a hat is about as delayed as instant gratification could get. And I like my gratification a little more instant than that. I don’t look for instant gratification from finishing my projects (mostly cause I wouldn’t find it.) Gratification and satisfaction? Absolutely. Instant gratification? Not so much. I much prefer the instant gratification I get from the act of knitting. The yarn, the needles, the movement, the rhythm. It’s kind of like instant happy...

Welcome! I'm Holly Chayes.