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

process or product?

07 Jun 2013

FOs, thoughts & things

Process or product? Do you knit for the process of knitting, or the product you’re producing? I would suspect that for many of us it’s about both. I love the process of knitting. The basic act of pulling loops of string through loops of string. I find it as natural as breathing. It’s a meditation. Embodying ease, rhythm, fluidity, flow, peace, knowing. Every time I pick up needles it’s an act of affirmation. I know that I know how to knit. But at the same time, I don’t knit just to knit. I knit towards something. Not necessarily towards a finished object, but maybe. Or maybe it’s a swatch, or an idea, or a thought. But I don’t knit for the sake of knitting. I may not always get where I was planning on going, but the intention is still there. The intention shapes what, how and where I knit....

Wednesday Friday Mashup

06 Jun 2013

FOs, what's in the works, WIP Wednesdays

It’s not Wednesday or Friday, but I have an FO/WIP mashup. I’m busy working on swatches for the planned Shawl Geometry II. A bunch of the swatches are done, but there are still some more to go. The current plan is to have Shawl Geometry II focus on subtracting from and dividing basic shapes to get new shapes, and then have a Shawl Geometry III that focuses on adding onto the basics. But that plan might change/get added to. Because Shawl Geometry II & III certainly weren’t in the original game plan. Here’s the info about Shawl Geometry. So instead of an FO tomorrow I think I’ll be talking about either why I knit, or the mess that comes from being a maker and trying to distinguish the “what I am” from the “what I do.” Related posts playing with playing and swatches Who doesn’t like an almost...

Shawl Geometry: Side to Side Triangle

03 Jun 2013

Shawl Geometry

This is the eight post in a series about different shawl shapes and how to knit them. All the posts in the series can be found right here. Side to Side Triangle To shape the Side to Side Triangle, you cast on at one corner, increase along one edge until you reach your halfway point, (the second corner), then you decrease along that same edge to your third corner. This particular shaping is wonderfully versatile, and easily customizable. You can customize the number of stitches you cast on, the rate of shaping along the bottom edge (which changes the angle of the bottom point), and the symmetry or asymmetry of your whole shawl. Explanation about different rates of shaping Increase every row (left). Increase every 2nd row (top right). Increase every 4th row (bottom right). One of the easiest ways to manipulate and customize the Side to Side Triangle is...

Welcome! I'm Holly Chayes.