New Audiobook House Sticks to Its Knitting

By Judith Rosen -- Publishers Weekly, 10/29/2007 7:48:00 AM

Knitting Out Loud in Stockton Springs, Maine, bills itself as the only audiobook publisher to focus exclusively on knitting. According to founder Kathy Goldner, she got the idea to publish recordings of knitting literature last winter.

“I had not knit in a long time, and I started going to the library and bringing home armloads of books. It was terribly frustrating to read them and not be able to knit. I thought, these ought to be on audio,” says Goldner. She decided to found Knitting Out Loud and put them on audio herself after friend and neighbor Heather Frederick, who founded Audio Bookshelf in 1992, agreed to be her mentor and produce the books for her.

The first three releases are shipping now: Debbie Stoller’s bestselling Stitch 'n Bitch: The Knitter's Handbook, read by the author; Knitting Memories: Reflections on the Knitter’s Life, edited by Nela Nargi and read by Kymberly Dakin (who won an Audie Award for her narration of Alice Munro’s Runaway); and Melanie Falick’s America Knits, read by Christine Marshall (who narrates the online version of the New Yorker magazine).

Goldner, who also directs the Literature and Art Program for elementary school students in mid-coast Maine, is planning to release three more titles in January. Her next list will include a social history of knitting and a book on Fair Isle knitting.

Knitting Out Loud is represented to yarn stores by Interweave and is available to booksellers through Baker & Taylor.