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: handspun yarn – a red & purple, 3 ply, worsted weight yarn

10 Mar 2015

FOs

Yarn! This particular yarn has been a long time in the making. I originally spun the Redfish DyeWorks (bright red) fiber with the intention of making my standard 2ply – upon finishing the singles I realized that would be a damn intense yarn. So the singles then sat on my desk for months* waiting for something. *not a good spinning practice – but they didn’t end up too much the worse for it. Turns out they were waiting for these 2 ounces of fiber from Wooliebullie (the darker purple-ier) – I originally thought about spinning this up on it’s own but that wouldn’t have yielded as much yardage as I would have wanted, and then when I held it with the bright red it seemed like the perfect match. Fiber A (bright red): 4oz Redfish DyeWorks’s in an intense bright red Fiber B (darker purple-ier): 2oz “Beaujolais” on Velvet from...

Adding a Third Rule to The Self-Made Wardrobe – Week 31

06 Mar 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. Trying something different this week – photos at the top of the post, commentary at the bottom. DAY 211 – Friday, February 27th hand knit sweater dress // black tank top black leggings // various rings // robot clock necklace Day 212 – Saturday, February 28th handspun handknit sweater // basic black tank top // graphic silk circle skirt black tights // brown boots // long necklace // various rings Day 213 – Sunday, March 1st deconstructed sweater // boring black sweater // black tank top // black maxi black tights // brown boots // various rings // long necklace Day 214 – Monday, March 2nd purple sweater // black tank top //...

two sleeves, some yarn, new jewelry, and a shawl

04 Mar 2015

FOs, what's in the works

Each Wednesday, I post little snippets about the projects I’m working on. I spent most of the weekend working on projects that were very much not my secret project – yay! – and that ended up being quite productive. Sleeves!!! My purple sweater has two of them. Now I just need to figure out the neckline situation, and I’ll have another sweater. I finished a spinning & plying a skein of handspun yarn that has been sitting on my desk for months now – so finishing this feels amazing. Back at VK Live in January, I learned how to bead crochet bracelets, but hadn’t learn how to close them. This weekend I learned, and how I have a pile of new jewelry! What’s not to love about that? And finally, I took photos for a new shawl pattern. (Was the last shawl I finished, really Rosmerta?) The design is a...

Welcome! I'm Holly Chayes.