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 Moonstruck Cardigan

06 Nov 2014

FOs, The Self-Made Wardrobe Garments

(sorry about the blurriness – but it gives you an idea of the size of the collar) I’ve never been too much of a sweater knitter (my thing was mostly lace shawls that I don’t wear). Prior to the self-made wardrobe project, I had finished: 1. a sweater for myself that I accidentally felted 2. a super straightforward & easy sweater that I knit during Hurricane Sandy 3. and this sweater, which I knit in the fall of 2010. The pattern is “Moonstruck” by A. Karen Alfke, from Blue Moon Fiber Arts, and the yarn is Dream in Color “Classy.” I knit the sweater on a US 7, and reworked the pattern to match my gauge. If I remember correctly, I did a bunch of math, and then just ended up knitting a size or two larger. Amazingly enough, I’m not sure there’s anything I would change about this sweater....

single minded knitting focus

05 Nov 2014

what's in the works

Each Wednesday, I post little snippets about what’s happening, and what I’m working on. Single minded knitting focus, gets pretty boring after awhile. My winter coat is all I’m working on. Some other ideas are brewing in the background, but as far as crafting goes, this is it. No spinning. No sewing. No other knitting. I put the body together, have picked up for the sleeves, and am halfway through sleeve number 1. This means it’s absolutely no-longer a portable knitting project, and while I knit, it’s doing double duty as a blanket. My plan is to close up part of the side-seams & underarm seams, once I get both sleeves halfway knit. I’m doing this so I can get a better understanding of the proportions of the sweater/coat. I’ll get some better photos and write a more in-depth post, once I close up the side seams and it stops...

The Self-Made Wardrobe Week 13

31 Oct 2014

The Self-Made Wardrobe

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 85 – OCTOBER 24th Moonstruck Sweater Black Tank Top Cascading Flowers Skirt Black Flats Bicycle Clock Necklace Various Rings It feels like, I haven’t worn this skirt in awhile, which is funny because I wore it almost non stop throughout August. DAY 86 – OCTOBER 25th Versio Sweater Black Tank Top Graphic Silk Circle Skirt Sneakers Clock Necklace Various Rings Not sure how I feel about this sweater with this skirt, some days I really like them together, and some days I feel like they just don’t quite work. I also think I prefer it with not so heavy a necklace. DAY 87 – OCTOBER 26th Boring Black Sweater Black Tank Top Black Maxi Skirt with a Slit Black Flats Bead Crochet Necklace...

Welcome! I'm Holly Chayes.