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

Knitting a Second Purple Pullover

12 May 2015

FOs, The Self-Made Wardrobe Garments

You’d think that one purple pullover would be enough, but apparently not. I’ve only had this sweater finished for a week or so and I’m already obsessed with it – partly for it’s color, partly for it’s fit. This is the 4th top down yoked pullover I’ve knit, and I think I’ve got my basic recipe down. Like my previous purple pullover (which had raglan shaping), I knit this sweater with two strands of lace weight yarn held together. I used, one skein of Tosh Lace in the colorway “curiosity” and a skein of Western Sky Knits Lace in the colorway “elephant.” Overall knitting this sweater went much more smoothly than the knitting of my first purple pullover – that sweater was a lesson in how to knit a basic sweater in the most complicated way possible, while this sweater was pretty straightforward knitting with a lot of fits &...

I certainly don’t have the most conventional wardrobe – The Self-Made Wardrobe Week 40

08 May 2015

The Self-Made Wardrobe

The Self-Made Wardrobe is a project where I only wear garments I’ve made. It’s a year long experiment in getting dressed without clothing labels – it’s a year about noticing patterns, trying things, and observing what happens. Day 274 – Friday, May 1st Archer button up // black tank top // jeans black scarf // black flats // bead crochet bracelets // various rings Day 275 – Saturday, May 2nd 2nd purple pullover // black tank top // pirate skirt robot necklace // bead crochet bracelets // rings // wedge sandals Day 276 – Sunday, May 3rd jade cropped sweater // black tank top // cascading flowers skirt black scarf // bead crochet bracelets // various rings // black flats Day 277 – Monday, May 4th Archer button up shirt // black tank top // jeans robot necklace // bead crochet bracelets // various rings // black booties Day 278...

beading and swatching

06 May 2015

what's in the works

Each Wednesday, I take stock of the projects I’m working on. What I’m Working on… : more bead crochet bracelets : swatching for a new sweater : and also writing posts for the projects I finished last week No related posts.

Welcome! I'm Holly Chayes.