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

sweater weather, rainstorms, and a sassy-tinkerbell-mug

03 Sep 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 cut the waistband & hem band to the skirt I was working on last week, while catching up on podcasts. Then attached them Thursday morning, before wearing it for the rest of the day. You can see the finished skirt in last Friday’s Self-Made Wardrobe update. The solo lace shawl of my needles is getting worked on, but I need to remember to set myself time to work on it. Otherwise I’d just keep knitting my sweater. I did end up running out of the black Forest Hills yarn I’m using in my Versio sweater, and had to pick up another ball. But this time I’m remembering to wind it before trying to knit from both ends of the skein. The beginning of fall mean the return of...

8 clothing related reminders from Month One of The Self-Made Wardrobe. Because reinventing the wheel every time sucks.

01 Sep 2014

thoughts & things, Tips & Tricks

It’s the beginning of Day 32 of The Self-Made Wardrobe Project. Yesterday was the end of Month 1, today is the beginning of Month 2, and I’m beginning to maybe believe that this project might not be as crazy as it feels. At the very least I know I can come up with something to wear every day – freezing when the weather finally gets cold is a whole other thing though. Since I’ve been doing this for over a month, I’ve learned some things, about what I like, and what I don’t. So I’d like to write myself some clothing related reminders. They’re not rules. Or even guidelines. They’re just reminders. Things I’ve learned, and would rather not have to re-learn. Because reinventing the wheel every time sucks. (Of course, these work for me and my wardrobe. You can have whatever wardrobe reminders/guidelines/rules work for you and your wardrobe.)...

The Self-Made Wardrobe Week 4

29 Aug 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 here. It’s the end of Week 4 of The Self-Made Wardrobe, and on Sunday it’ll be the true end of Month 1. 1 month down, just 11 months to go… Fall is definitely in the air, and I’m both excited and petrified. Last weekend (Days 22 & 23) I went up to my parent’s house, they live up in New England, and it was chilly. Just in case I needed a reminder to sit my ass at that sewing machine. I wore the jersey dress I mentioned in last week’s post, and loved it. It was wonderfully comfortable for the train ride up and back. Plus I got tons of complements on it – and who doesn’t love that. The days are still beautiful, and I can...

Welcome! I'm Holly Chayes.