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 Geometry: 3/4 Square

15 Jul 2013

Shawl Geometry

This is the fifteenth post in a series about different shawl shapes and how to knit them. All the posts in the series can be found right here. 3/4 Square from the top down This variation on the Square Knit in the Round is simply three of the four quarters needed to shape a full square. The 3/4 Square shawl fits and drapes in a way that is quite unique to its shape. It doesn’t hug the shoulders in the same way squares or circles with slits do, or in the same way semi-circular shawls do. However, it does sit nicely. And because of that “missing” quarter it sits on the shoulders in a very open manner. Knitting Instructions CO 9sts. {4 border sts + 3 sections + 2 spines} R1: k2, (pm, yo, k1, yo, pm, k1) 3 times, k1. R2: purl across. R3: k2, (sm, yo, k to...

Oh! Hello hello Friday.

12 Jul 2013

FOs, thoughts & things

Hello, hello, Friday. You are mighty sneaky. It’s been how many weeks of missed FO Fridays? Fridays. They are sneaky, sneaky. So I’m looking for a new way to notice and mark Fridays. I really like the idea of FO Friday, but it’s not quite sitting right anymore. It feels forced and awkward. I just don’t work on projects that can be finished in a week. Then I don’t have an FO to show one Friday, so I take that Friday off, and then I feel a little bad. Then one Friday becomes a string of Fridays, and I feel guilty. ick THEN when I do finish something, I want to show you! And I don’t want to wait till the next Friday. But I feel like I should. More guilt. more ick I still want to talk about and show you finished objects. And I absolutely will!...

Shawl Geometry: Wedge Circle with a Slit

08 Jul 2013

Shawl Geometry

This is the fourteenth post in a series about different shawl shapes and how to knit them. All the posts in the series can be found right here. Wedge Circle with a Slit from the center out Just like you can work a Square with a Slit, you can also work the Wedge Circle with a Slit. You work all the same shaping and patterning as the full Wedge Circle, but worked at in rows, rather than in the round. Knitting Instructions CO 12sts. {4 border sts + 8 sections} R1: k2, (pm, yo, k1) 8 times, k2. R2: purl across. R3: k2, (sm, yo, k to marker) 8 times, k2. R4: purl across. Rep R3&4 to desired dimensions. Bind off loosely. Wedge Circle with a Slit from the hem in Calculating your cast on Determine your final gauge and the desired radius of your shawl. The radius is half...

Welcome! I'm Holly Chayes.