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

the weaving streak continues

18 Nov 2015

what's in the works

Each Wednesday, I take stock of the projects I’m working on, and where my brain is at. More weaving… Mostly weaving in between the cracks of this week. The cracks between opening a show, having an awful cold, and my roommate moving out. Weaving is faster than knitting – but my pile of autumnal yarn seems to be a never ending pile. Because two not-short pieces of fabric in I still have a fist size ball of each 5 colors left. I’m thinking one more piece of fabric might just finish that though. I’m going to try and warp the loom today. Maybe tonight? Or over lunch? And again be very, very glad I chose to weave this fabric instead of knitting it. No related posts.

weaving, and more thoughts on process and product

11 Nov 2015

thoughts & things, what's in the works

Each Wednesday, I take stock of the projects I’m working on, and where my brain is at. More weaving this week. And it’s gotten me thinking even more about the connection between process and project (product). Are you in it for the process? Or for the product (project)? These weaving projects, the one up above, and the multi color length of fabric from last week, started because I had the yarn, and wanted the fabric. (Project) Product. I want the fabric. I want these yarns to combine and interact, to play and dance off of one another. There are plenty of ways to create fabric. And tons of things that can be done, once the fabric is finished. I don’t know what I’ll do with this fabric once it’s done. But I want the fabric. And I chose to create a woven fabric, because weaving is faster than knitting. Process....

playing with weaving, and woven fabrics

04 Nov 2015

what's in the works

Each Wednesday, I take stock of the projects I’m working on, and where my brain is at. Full brain. Busy week. Writing. Reading. Weaving. Another week of playing with color. Experimenting and exploring. In a different form this week. No knitting. No crochet. Not peaking at colors through a layer of black and white. Not swatching and swatching and swatching. Well, swatching – but one long giant woven swatch. A pile of yarns. Beautiful colorways in and of themselves, mixed and combined and woven together – literally. I borrowed a friend’s ridged heddle loom, and spent Halloween exploring the depth of color that can be found in a single colorway. A beautiful, beige-tan color. Not one of my normal colors – not at all. But it was already warped, and excellent for practicing. Not my yarn. Not my color. And I thought it was just a whatever color. But it’s...

Welcome! I'm Holly Chayes.