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?

A personal style coaching and content practice devoted to helping you own and wear your clothes intentionally, instead of being worn by them. Discover your own style guidance, and learn more about the practice of intentional style at WhoWearsWho.com

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

Sweater Weather, Non Sweater Weather & Christmas Traveling – The Self-Made Wardrobe Week 21

The Self-Made Wardrobe is a project where I only wear garments I’ve made. It’s sort of a year long experiment in getting dressed without clothing labels. DAY 141 – DECEMBER 19th Versio Sweater Black Scarf Graphic Silk Circle Skirt Black Tights Brown Boots Various Rings I’ve said this before, but I’ve never really been a sweater knitter. Prior to this self-made wardrobe project, I mostly knit super complex lace shawls that I almost never wear. And one of the best parts of this project has been knitting sweaters, learning tons about knitting sweaters, and figuring out how to knit sweaters out of yarn I already have in my yarn stash (none of which was bought with knitting sweaters in mind.) DAY 142 – DECEMBER 20th Moonstruck Cardigan Grey Cowl Black Maxi Skirt with a Slit Black Tights Brown Boots Various Rings One of the downsides to wearing mostly black is...
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just a super quick note to say…

Each Wednesday, I post little snippets about what’s happening, and what I’m working on. Just a super super quick note to say: “Merry Merry Christmas & Happy Happy Hanukkah” I’ve spent the past week madly embroidering Christmas gifts. Even though I know I said I wouldn’t. This ornament has already been gifted – and all show you the other pieces once they’ve made it into the hands of their recipients. Now that Christmas gifts are (more or less) taken care of, I’m excited to get back to self-made wardrobe knitting. My Christmas knitting is a striped top-down raglan sweater knit entirely out of handspun yarn – I can’t wait to dive back in. No related posts.

an almost completed button up shirt, and it’s the end of week 20! – The Self-Made Wardrobe Week 20

The Self-Made Wardrobe is a project where I only wear garments I’ve made. It’s sort of a year long experiment in getting dressed without clothing labels. DAY 134 – DECEMBER 12th Boring Black Sweater Basic Black Tank Top Graphic Silk Circle Skirt Grey Tights Brown Boots Bead Crochet Bracelet Various Rings I absolutely love this boring black sweater. As much of a boring nightmare as it was to knit (and it was really boring), I can wear it with anything in my wardrobe, and it’s the perfect weight for a light winter layer. I guess sometimes sucking it up and knitting the boring things is totally worth it. DAY 135 – DECEMBER 13th Blue Kimono Grey Cowl Basic Black Tank Top Cascading Flowers Skirt Various Rings This blue kimono was one of the very first things I made for the self-made wardrobe and I wore it almost constantly throughout the...
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