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

shawls, sweaters, sewing, yarn, and a new pop up yarn shop

08 Oct 2014

what's in the works

Each Wednesday I post little snippets about the projects I’m working on. You can see all of the Wednesday posts here. I bound off my shawl! Knit out of Julie Asselin’s Merletto and of my own design, I can’t wait to block it and see how it turned out! First I need this sweater to dry. I’m so accustomed to knitting & blocking lace shawls (which can dry in a couple hours) that the day or two sweaters require to dry feels like an eternity. I took a break from my frantic sweater knitting to do a little bit of sewing… In my brain I know that sewing is faster than knitting – a lot faster – but every time I’m away from the sewing machine for more than a week or so, I sort of forget how much faster it really is. Mostly though, it’s been sweater knitting all...

Getting Your Wardrobe Ready for Fall and Looking Forward to Winter

06 Oct 2014

Tips & Tricks

Fall is very firmly here, so I have sweaters, sewing, autumn, and upcoming winter, on the brain. I’m certainly not the only one. Andi at Untangling-Knots, asked her readers to show off their favorite fall sweaters, and the response was some seriously beautiful sweaters. Faith at Faithfully Geeky, listed her criteria for her ideal fall sweater – including “was it enjoyable to knit” – which made me think some more about the gap that sometimes appears between what we like to make, and what we like to wear. Caroline at Sew Caroline, gathered up some fall sewing inspiration. Including this coat from Vogue (#V8930), which looks amazingly cozy, and simple to sew. And the Cascade Skirt from Megan Nielsen, in my opinion you can never have too many long flowing skirts… luckily, pairing boots & tights with your skirts is an easy fall update. Kate at Design Diary, has some...

The Self-Made Wardrobe Week 9 – Welcome to October!

03 Oct 2014

The Self-Made Wardrobe

The Self-Made Wardrobe is a project where I only wear garments I’ve made, for one year. You can read more about the project, and catch up on past posts, here. It’s the end of week 9, and the second month of this project! (I’ll try not to wait a month to post the wrap up for September.) It’s getting a little chilly here… I pulled out tights for the first time yesterday, and was cursing them throughout the day, but was very glad I had them when I was coming home last night. We’re having typical New York fall weather, where you’re screwed no matter what you wear. What’s perfect for during the day isn’t enough once the sun goes down, and what’s perfect for mornings & evenings sucks throughout the day. And it feels like no matter what you wear, you’re stuck carrying layers around. All that to say,...

Welcome! I'm Holly Chayes.