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

Mirror World

19 Jul 2011

Pattern Releases

Mirror World is now available for purchase as a download, for $6.00 either on Ravelry, or directly through the blog … buy now Triangles mirrored make diamonds. Diamonds stacked make columns. Columns of diamonds and off-set triangles intermingle and play across a crescent of a field. And as they play, they all see themselves in the other. Because triangles mirrored make diamonds, and diamonds halved make triangles. Knit in one piece from the top down, this shawl begins by casting on 11 stitches at the back of the neck and increasing eight stitches every other row to shape this shawl into a crescent. Finally, an eyelet-increase row is worked just before the bind off to ensure that a thorough blocking is possible. Yarn: Madelinetosh ‘tosh lace,’ 950 yards (968 meters), 100% superwash merino, 1 skein, shown in ‘curiosity’ Needles: US size 2 (2.75 mm) 40 inch (101 cm) circular, or...

Avoiding Second Sock Syndrome

18 Jul 2011

General Stuffs

Or in this case second sock, and second mitten syndrome. I generally don’t knit socks anymore. There was a period of a year or two where I only wore hand knit socks, and consequently I knit a lot of socks, but not anymore. However as part of stash dash (still need to post that latest shawl) I had a ball of sock yarn hanging around that I decided to knit up. It wasn’t quite right for a lacy scarf, which was my first idea, so I figured I’d give socks one more go. Unfortunately I decided to knit these socks while on vacation, and the only set of DPNs with me were the ones I was using for the No-Longer-Springy Mitts. So I very quickly finished up the first mitten and slipped it onto an extra circular I had laying around, promptly cast on the first sock, and then I...

In which I am a joiner

12 Jul 2011

General Stuffs

I’m not much of a joiner, never have been. Most of the time I’m perfectly happy doing my own thing, at my own pace, in my own way, but apparently not this summer. It started with the KnitGirllls’ Stash Dash. (Here’s the official Ravelry thread). I’ve never done a stash down or a yarn diet before, mostly because I like my yarn stash, and see no need to stress out about it, or try to get rid of a large chunk of it. Plus I’m a student which is kind of like being on a continual yarn diet, without a solid end in sight. But the stash dash isn’t so much about getting rid of stash as it is about knitting (and spinning and crocheting and weaving) a crazy amount (5 kilometers, 5000 meters, just under 5500 yards) in a relatively short period of time (between May 27th and August...

Welcome! I'm Holly Chayes.