Hello dear reader. I am in search of your helpful advice. I am looking for podcasts. Specifically knitting podcasts, but I’m also interested in quality music, eco-friendly and helpful podcasts. Here’s what I’m subscribing to now:
- Grammar Girl’s Quick & Easy Tips—This is a quick podcast going into grammar idiosyncrasies. Stuff like is the phrase “you’ve got mail” grammatically correct?
- iTunes New Music Tuesday—Probably the best quick update on new music. Clips of songs last about 10 seconds or a little longer and cover the spectrum of genres. The podcast also mentions iTunes Single of the Week and free downloads so you can take advantage of a good thing. Sometimes there’s a little too much latin, but I just fast forward through those parts.
- NPR: All Songs Considered—Bob Boilen might be my hero. This is a great overall review. He’s been around long enough to know good music. Periodically there are seasonal previews of upcoming music to be released and at the end of the year, there’s a holiday episode and a year in review. This is a longer podcast, so good for a longer commute.
- NPR: Live Concerts from All Songs Considered—This podcast features hour-long concerts. Hour-long concerts people! Of cool bands like She & Him, The Tings Tings, Kaki King. Just remember to limit how many you sync or you’ll quickly fill up your iPod.
- Knit Picks’ Podcast—Probably my favorite fiberly flavored podcast. The host Kelley Petkun (owner of Knit Picks) offers useful information in a light hearted way. The last episode I listened to featured the ins and outs of lace knitting. Fun!
- Learn French with Coffee Break French—Also a new podcast subscription, I’m going to learn French again. Bien!
- Make-It Green: Quick & Dirty Tips—A new subscription and a cousin of Grammar Girl, this podcast has five-minute episodes that give you background information and tips on living a greener life.
- LIME Daily Audio Podcast—A useful life tips podcast.
There are a few podcasts, I haven’t tried out yet. I’m “testing” them, meaning I’ve downloaded a few episodes to sample. Here are those podcasts:
- Planet Green Podcast—Another eco-friendly podcast
- Pointy Sticks—A knitting podcast
- Ready Set Knit—Another knitting podcast
- Tara Stiles Yoga—Yoga videos, obviously
- TreeHugger Radio—From the web guys over at TreeHugger; eco news
- YOGAmazing—Yoga again
Ones I’ve tried and just can’t get into include:
- IndieFeed (all varities)—There’s nothing wrong with it, I just can’t keep up with the format. They stream one song per day with a host giving a little intro of the song in the beginning and summary of the artist at the end. You can’t really do anything with the tracks since there’s stuff before and after and I would rather have a summary show that I get more out of.
- Knit Science—I thought it was going to be more focused on informative topics, but it’s more of a personal podcast. Nothing wrong with it, just not what I’m looking for.
- Limenviolet—Again, more personal stories then information.
- Socks in the City—Personal journal podcast, plus I’m not sure I need any more help knitting socks.
In my searching, I have discovered the Podcast Junkies group on Ravelry where they have a “List your top 3 podcasts” thread. Also on Rav is a FiberPodcasts wiki page, also helpful. These will probably grow my podcast list immediately.
So if you have recommendations, thoughts, etc. that you want to lend my way, I’m on the hunt for quality podcasts.
Be inspired.
Kate has an incredible amount of drive when it comes to LoganSquarist. In the six months that I’ve been involved, I’ve watched the site grow from a pet project to a respected community publication. This success can be attributed to Kate’s technical and leadership skills. From building out the site to off-hours community management and a consistent flow of content, the site improves by leaps and bounds on a weekly basis. When it comes to team management, Kate delegates tasks in an organized and efficient manner, making her an all around great and inspiring person to work with.
Kate has been a fantastic resource for all things digital, whether redesigning my website on Wordpress, fine tuning my social media profiles, or understanding Google Analytics. She's an excellent communicator, and I will absolutely hire her again in the future.
One of the best things I've ever done in my career is work with Kate Hamilton. Her enthusiasm for all things editorial, not to mention her energy and passion for any project she's involved with, is contagious. In addition to being a natural born leader, she's also a creative type, a thinker, a stickler for details, and someone with incredible vision and the drive to get things done. I always marvel at how she is constantly teaching herself new things. She always seems to be ahead of the curve on anything related to social media, and she also has an eye for design. This lady rocks! And she continues to be a mentor to me and others in journalism and communications.
I met Kate through the Association of Women Journalists (AWJ) and immediately was impressed (and inspired) by her creativity, drive, work ethic and use of social media. Her passion for journalism, digital media and communications overall is evident in the projects she takes on, including LoganSquarist, an online news outlet that she founded that uses social media to socialize the neighborhood. What I admire about Kate is her vitality as well as her desire to keep learning and growing personally and professionally. Kate is a modern-day renaissance woman who is multitalented (ask about her travel, knitting and marathon exploits!) and who brings instant value to any team or organization.
Kate did and excellent job with our website. We have received several compliments on how nice it looks and how easy it is to navigate. She also went above and beyond to make sure that we were able to update and the website ourselves through Wordpress. I cannot gush about how awesome she is and how happy we are with the site and her dedication to the project.
Kate is a wealth of knowledge who served as a tremendous mentor for all of our team members while constantly improving processes and workflows. She’s a tremendous project manager, pays great attention to detail, and is able to demand results from her team with respect. At LoganSquarist she has built and led a team of dozens of volunteer contributors committed to her vision of a community resource. I would happily work with Kate again anytime!
Kate is a real professional and a pleasure to work with. She is a great communicator and always put her client's (my company) interest first. She is tremendously personal and had a great understanding of our business and how she could help it. She is great and is a tremendous asset to any company.
I worked with Kate during my time as a community manager at Lightspan Digital while Kate was my direct manager. Kate’s communication practices really taught me how to navigate the sometimes complicated agency world. As an account manger, Kate smoothly orchestrated 10+ accounts at one time as well as help me manage and prioritize tasks in my role. Kate was a role model during my first few years in the professional world and continues to be so to this day.