I listen to and watch a number of podcast when I knit, especially close to a deadline when I tend to set aside hours of knitting to finish off the design. Fruity Knitting is one of my favourite shows, due to their in-depth interviews always with pictures and videos, hence I was so chuffed when I received a message on Ravelry from Andrea asking if I would be on the show. I certainly would, and had only a vague idea of the amount of preparation I had to do as well as technical set-up I had to overcome. However, I did leave the technical side of it to Michael, who filmed our first session on Skype, when we went through the answers I had prepared to Andrea’s questions. Our internet connection is not the best here in Ørje, so we had to do a second brief technical trial, this time from Michael’s office upstairs, instead of my studio downstairs. In the end, the final Skype session was done in our living room (in front of the fire place) with an extra cable to our router, with newly bought second-hand tailor busts in the background. Michael filmed this session too and sent the files from our very slow uploading internet connection to Andrea, so they would have the footage as a backup to the Skype recording. Andrea, the pro in all this, was ever so calm and asked a number of part questions each time I came to a halt – panicking if I had remembered to say all I had planned and desperately trying to appear calm. Andrea did a brilliant editing job, hence I appear a lot more cohesive than I thought I sounded.

Andrea suggested I make a short tutorial video of my slip stitch crochet seam and that was another job for Michael. She also wanted two videos of me knitting, and we did try to record one outside at the beach in Ørje on a sunny but cold day. But the footage was too dark and my hands looked nearly blue, so that did not work at all. Luckily, I was going to Bergen, on the west coast, to visit Hillesvåg Ullvarefabrikk as well as holding a presentation, so I sent them an e-mail to ask if they could help take a the videos of me knitting.

They obliged and I could pick where I wanted to sit after Øyvind had showed me around at the factory (read: more in the next blogpost). We did talk about doing it among the old machinery but they were ever so noisy and the lighting was not the best, so we ended up where they have their knit nights with plenty of natural light. Anette filmed me and Øyvind signalled when I needed to look up. We did have fun making this footage! You cannot belive all the knitting mistakes I did in the stitch pattern on my swatch.

I sent over a number of photos relating to my answers and Andrea picked some of the ones I have on my blog as well. In addition I suggested a discount of 30% on all my individual patterns at Ravelry to her patrons, who support the podcast. I love the introduction Andrea gave me: “Linda Marveng’s designs are very distinctive and sophisticated. She uses dynamic silhouettes with lots of texture and very intricate and beautiful cables as well as a fair bit of lace. Linda lived and worked in London for a long time and that’s where she received most of her training in teaching knitting workshops and then later in designing knitwear. I think you can see this mix of British and Scandinavian design reflected in her work…” Continues on the Fruity Knitting Website.

Thank you so much for having me on your podcast, Fruity Knitting! I am overwhelmed with all the positive feedback I have received! Do watch the episode if you have not done so already, and enjoy following the podcast.