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

Is it more expensive to make clothes or to buy them? – The Self-Made Wardrobe the whole money thing…

27 Aug 2015

The Self-Made Wardrobe, thoughts & things

The Self-Made Wardrobe is a project where I only wear garments I’ve made for a year. It was a year about making things and seeing what happens. For a long time making clothing was cheaper than, or at least as expensive as, buying ready-made clothing. As store bought clothing got cheaper, and the fast fashion industry grew & fed upon itself, this became less and less true. Until it became significantly more expensive to make clothe than to buy them. But is that really the case? Is it more expensive to make clothes? Or to buy them? The short answer is… it depends… ??? Since I have access to so many numbers for all of the clothes I made as part of the self-made wardrobe, I figured I’d go through and calculate out the cost for each garment. The Cost of Materials (click to embiggen) A quick note about the...

photographing a black and white blob

26 Aug 2015

what's in the works

Each Wednesday, I take stock of the projects I’m working on. I’m working away on my crochet cardigan, and I’m loving how simple it is. The stitch is brainless (a giant granny square). The shaping is ingrained in my brain (a basic center out square shawl). The yarn is absolutely lovely (Karabella “Max”). And there’s absolutely no deadline. For me, right now, it’s the perfect project. But now the question has arisen… how many ways can you photograph a black and white blob? No related posts.

success, younger selves, fabric and clothing, oh my! – To Read Over Coffee #9

22 Aug 2015

To Read Over Coffee

A collection of links from the past few weeks that I think are interesting/amusing/educational/insightful enough to read/watch/listen & think about over a cup of coffee. 10 Slow and Difficult Steps to Moderate Success. I love Alexandra’s writing, and especially love when she turns the ever “XYZ in 3 easy steps” listicle on it’s head. How We Become Who We Are: Meghan Daum on Nostalgia, Aging, and Why We Romanticize Our Imperfect Younger Selves Maria’s articles always manage to be timely and timeless at the same time – I stumbled over this post while reading something else on brain pickings, and particularly love Daum’s conversation between her Younger and Older Selves. Amy over at Antemortem Arts wrote a really interesting piece about all the ways you can support her, and other independent artists working online. There are the obvious ways to support – like buying & sharing art or prints –...

Welcome! I'm Holly Chayes.