Friday, February 23, 2007

Unwound

Kelli Robinson's Unwound is an inspirational podcast. In fact, her podcast has inspired me to review all knitting podcasts.

Kelli is a lawyer in Birmingham, AL. Her voice is very soothing, and she expresses her ideas and thoughts with clarity and ease. Her style is very laid-back, and I find it to be very relaxing. The title 'Unwound' is very appropriate.

The structure of the podcast is usually the same from week to week.

Kelli opens with a mini-monologue about what the content of this podcast will include.

Then, she gives thanks to all of the people that have helped her in any way. I really appreciate the thanks part of the show, because it starts the podcast out positively.

Next, she usually plays a tip from someone other than herself. She moves on to talk about her knitting and where she is with something. This is really great, too, because she shares her questions and uncertainties, and it helps me to feel like I am not alone in my questions.

Then, she talks about some knitting-related thing that she has researched. As a lawyer, she clearly has excellent research skills. She explains this thing in every possible way, and really understands what she is talking about. She conveys the information clearly and efficiently. The variety of topics covers yarn shops to charitable causes to knitting lingo and techniques.

Then, she has a special segment. This week, she had a listener from Japan submit an essay about the beginnings of her very interesting scarf.

And then, she does my favorite thing of all. She plays the listener poll feedback. This is when I get to hear voices from across the country and world talk about various knitting-related subjects. It is astounding to hear the variety of answers people give, and the variety of voices on the other side of the earphone. I participated in this last one, so we'll see if I make it on! :o)

Finally, she wraps up the show by introducing the listeners to three new books. She hasn't necessarily read the books, but she talks about them (basicially covers what you could read on the back of the book) and offers them in her drawing for others to review.

Overall, Kelli's podcast is really great. At this point, there is absolutely nothing I would do to change it. Occasionally, I feel that the listener call-in portion of the show is a little long, but I think that will change with Unwound's growing popularity.

5 out of 5 stars

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow! (blush blush) Note to self: Be sure to thank Lyndsay at Knitting in the Red for such a thoughtful review. On a serious note: I would love your opinion on the max time to devote to the listener poll. It is a popular segment that I'm currently devoting 20 minutes to each episode - should I reduce to 15? I have seen a comment here and there that its a great segment but can drag on a bit. Please please email me with your thoughts. Your contributions are appreciated. And what a great idea for a blog.

Jessie said...

This is great, Lyndsay! I'm going to have to track this podcast down.

Betsy said...

I couldn't agree more, Lyndsay : )
Unwound is a great podcast, thanks to Kelli's organized and friendly way of sharing information and fiber-related stories.
And all of the listener involvement is wonderful--it's like being part of a knitting group that meets online.
Once again, great review. I look forward to your next blog entry!