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

Finished Project: Banaue Breeze Sweater – the third and final finished project of 2016

30 Dec 2016

FOs

It’s my finished Banaue Breeze sweater! Since I’m writing this two days before the new year, I’m fairly confident saying that this will be my final finished project of 2016 – which brings my total finished project count of 2016 to three! (and one project was mending a pair of pants). Huzzah! It turns out that traveling and moving apartments seriously cut into my making time. 2016 has been an adventure. And 2017 is looking like it will be too. Have a wonderful & safe New Years, I’ll see you next year. – xo, Holly Now on to the sweater details! Materials Pattern: Banaue Breeze by Stephen West Yarn: 3 skein of Malabrigo laceweight Malabrigo’s Silkpaca in colorways “Natural (063)” and “Piedras (862)” 1 skein each; 420 yds (384 m) per 50oz skein; 2 ply laceweight; 70% Baby Alpaca, 30% Silk Malabrigo’s Lace in an unknown colorway (this is...

8 Years of Unfinished Projects and an experiment with video!

29 Dec 2016

what's in the works

Each Wednesday, I post a snapshot of the projects I’m working on, and where my brain is at. Firstly, I hope that you had, or are having a wonderful winter holiday (or at the very least surviving). Secondly, It seems that Thursday is the new Wednesday around here! Last week I borked my website, and this week I got the very bright, very last minute idea to experiment with video… so, the post that usually takes me an hour and a half to photograph, write, edit, review, and post each week, took me a day and a half. It started when I decided to find and document all of the unfinished projects I have, because the end of the year seems like a good time for it. It turns out that I have quite a few projects hanging about, some of which stretch back 8 years or so. The post...

the week I broke my website, plus a laceweight sweater just in time for Christmas

22 Dec 2016

what's in the works

Each Wednesday, I post a snapshot of the projects I’m working on, and where my brain is at. This week’s Wednesday post is happening on Thursday, because yesterday I borked my website. And then had a meeting (which was fine but it meant I couldn’t obsessively hit refresh). But then I went Christmas shopping. And then found a cockroach (maybe it was a spider?) running around in my closet – at which point I said enough of Wednesday and took a 2 hour evening nap. (There also may have been a mini-meltdown, and a long to-do list, and many things that just weren’t working…) Everything is fine now – the website is fixed, the shopping is done, the roach has been raided – but it was not the best Wednesday. So here we are… What I was going to write yesterday, but then didn’t. My Banaue Breeze is done done...

Welcome! I'm Holly Chayes.