A Knitting Life: An Interview with Fruity Knitting Podcast Creators

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So many of us listen to or watch podcasts as we work away on our knitting and crochet. It’s a good way of keeping our attention focused on simpler projects or tasks less interesting, such as tying in ends or those long stretches of stocking stitch you might find yourself with on a garment.

The Fruity Knitting podcast is unlike any other available. It is more like a television show, but for knitters. Produced by Australian husband and wife Andrew and Andrea from their home in Germany, they present viewers with a detailed and wide-ranging show fortnightly. Fruity Knitting combines the personal elements common on other podcasts with professional journalism. They share chatter about their projects along with a mixture of interviews with designers and fibre artists, and much more.

With all the interviewing Andrea and Andrew do, I thought it would be fun to find out a little more about them for a change, and what it’s like to make a living from a knitting podcast.

Andrea grew up in Albury, New South Wales. With a highly creative family, fibre craft has always been a part of Andrea’s life. “My Grandmother ran a clothing boutique and was very active in several “fibre crafts”, including spinning, knitting and natural plant dyeing,” Andrea says. “I learnt to knit from my mother and grandmother. I made a few garments in my teens but stopped knitting during my music degree. I started knitting again when our daughter, Madeleine, was born.”

Andrew and Andrea met at Melbourne University during an intensive German language course. In 1999 Andrew applied for a position in Frankfurt, Germany, with a small Australian software company. After getting the position the couple moved to Frankfurt with their baby daughter, Madeleine. Viewers of Fruity Knitting will be familiar with the important role that music plays in the show. While living in Australia, Andrea studied piano performance in Adelaide and then worked as an independent singing teacher in Germany.

In 2015, Andrea found herself struggling with an illness that made her unable to continue singing. “It was incredibly frustrating, and I turned my energies to knitting to distract me. I searched YouTube for interviews with designers, and, not finding any good, long interviews, came up with the idea for the show,” Andrea says.