Casting on Podcasts

Abstract

Abstract Early knitting podcasts offer scholars a record of early independent female audio production, community practices, and political activism that deserves examination. Within the heavily gendered environment of early 2000s podcasting, a renewed interest in crafting influenced female-centric podcast development. This chapter argues that the earliest knitting podcasts created an identity for female podcasters as “makers,” which was a critical precondition for female participation in this new medium. Through both producing and listening to knitting podcasts, knitters established a communal identity as creatives, claimed space in early podcasting, and reimagined their power as wives, mothers, and do-it-yourself citizens. Through digital and audio practices, female knitters were able to symbolically reconfigure their access to public spaces like podcasting and to the realm of politics inscribed therein.