Knitting and audiobooks go hand in hand – or rather, hand in ear. Your hands may be occupied working on your latest project, but unless you’re doing something really complicated that requires your full concentration, your ears and brain are free to listen. Personally, I’m almost always listening to an audiobook while I knit. Of course, we knitters and other crafters who are audiobook fans listen to any and all genres, from literary fiction to thrillers to young adult. But what if you want to dive deep into the world of fiber arts while you listen?
For nonfiction, try Clara Parkes’s anthology, A STASH OF ONE’S OWN. After all, every knitter has a stash, and this collection of essays from luminaries of the knitting world will resonate and, more than that, move you. Three narrators take turns delivering the essays, and they find the heart of each one. Plus, the short essays are ideal for quick knitting situations when you only have time to get in a row or two.
Sounding like a friend giving you a pep talk, Krista Suh reads her own DIY RULES FOR A WTF WORLD about her activism and the origins of the Pussyhat Project. And you’ll laugh out loud as Alanna Okun delivers her witty essays on crafting (and life) in THE CURSE OF THE BOYFRIEND SWEATER (so maybe don’t listen to this one while you’re knitting in public).
Moving to fiction, Chloe Benjamin’s novel THE IMMORTALISTS got a warm welcome in the knitting world, in part because the author is a fellow knitter! There were even knitting patterns and colorways inspired by the book and its cover design. But if you really want to go full knit, cozy knitting (and crocheting) mysteries with punny titles are the way to go. Try Sally Goldenbaum’s MURDER WEARS MITTENS, read by Julie Mckay; Maggie Sefton’s A DEADLY YARN, read by Jane Jacobs; or Betty Hechtman’s BY HOOK OR BY CROOK, read by Margaret Strom. Many of these are part of series, so if you get hooked (sorry), there’s a sweater’s-worth of listening available. And I’m going to go out on a limb and suggest that these are best enjoyed when it’s chilly outside and you can settle in with your project and your favorite hot beverage and listen.
Knitters, spinners, crocheters, rug punchers, weavers, felters—what do YOU like to listen to while you create? And what are you making while you listen?
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Jenn Dowell is Managing Editor of AudioFile. She loves to listen to audiobooks while she knits.