My First Stint on the Radio! Hear About "Real Life" Knitting on the Replay

It never occurred to me that "Dayana Knits" would have an opportunity to be on the radio. I've showcased my knitting on the Fruity Knitting podcast, but that was scripted out and pre-recorded!

Back in college I dreamt of my own DJ show (techno!) but was far too scared to put my voice out there. Even more -- what would people think of the music I played? What if I said something totally ridiculous? Likely. 😆

All of this flashed through my mind when my friend Jill (a long-standing member of our weekly Jesup Library Knitting Guild group in Bar Harbor, ME) asked, "Hey, who wants to join me on the radio to talk about knitting?" I thought, "Oh dear, this is a fab opportunity to embarrass myself... but... FAME!" Okay, that's a just a bit of an exaggeration. Just a bit!

I decided to join in -- have a listen, it was really great!

Replay the show here

I wore my Julia Sweater for the occasion, even though it was radio lol

The venue was WERU 89.9 Community Radio and the show was "Talk of the Towns." Jill started that radio show back in 1993 along with current host Ron Beard, so this would be a "coming home" moment for her. Ron had read that knitting was a good way for people to de-stress and wanted to feature local knitters in an episode entitled "Knitting as Craft, Knitting as Life Force." I like that title! Makes me feel like a knitting superhero.

Joining Jill and I were two other long-standing members of our group: Jen, who gave a great rundown of knitting history (including her own which we were totally shocked by) and Michelle, who is starting a new business called Knit Fit. It's a knitting + fitness program (yes, you knit and walk/move!) and she will be introducing her business as part of the Launch Pad program at Vogue Knitting Live NYC 2020. Included in that are bags that are ergonomically designed to carry yarn while walking, along with a pattern that can be easily accomplished without looking down much.

Ok I have a story about this, which I alluded to on the radio but didn't have a chance to tell: that bag would have come in handy back in grad school. I was headed to a party on the north side of Central Park and the area was unknown to me and a tad sketchy. I walked out of the subway and down the street past a bunch of guys having a good time on a stoop. I walked fast past them and heard laughing and commentary afterwards. Whatever. I had my New York Ignorance on and walked on. Soon I hear someone behind me yelling "miss, MISS!" and I turned to see a young guy pointing down at the ground. "Miss, I think you dropped something." Yes. On the ground was a strand of yarn, connected to the project I was knitting as I was walking. OMG I had to follow the yarn back down the entire street (past the dudes), across an avenue and BACK DOWN THE STAIRS of the subway to find the little ball. The icing on the cake was winding it up in embarrassment while walking past the group FOR A THIRD TIME who laughed and said, "Girl, you made our day."

Punchline: consider Michelle's Knit Fit bags (she's holding one here!) if you want to have your own literal knitting adventures.

Isn't the studio cool? That DJ dream came back to me right away.

And <<no doubt>> those microphones were intimidating, I felt more and more nervous as the start time approached.

But soon we were on our way! I can't even believe how we covered so many topics, ranging from how we started, whether it relaxed us (or when sometimes it absolutely didn't, i.e. frogging 😤), knitting history, knitting travel, making money from knitting, knitting philosophy... we even got some calls in.

Ron was an amazing host, I can see why he keeps doing these shows. He is excellent at corralling in a topic, making smooth segués and best of all, making us all feel very welcome and honored to be there. I really do recommend the show -- I learned new things about my fellow knitters whom I see every week (!) and love them even more than I did before!

Replay the show here