Knitting a jumper. Fixing a motorcycle. Baking a cake. The process is the same for all of them. Only the tools change.
An American ex-pat, currently living in Wales, I’m the creator and host of Cast On, a podcast about knitting. (Yes. Knitting.) While knitting is my thing, the stories I share and the ideas I talk about in the podcast are not really craft specific. At it’s heart, Cast On is about being creative, using your hands to make things, and doing good work, whether your chosen tool is a 8mm knitting needle, an 8 piece spanner set, or an 8 inch spring form pan.
It’s been interesting to watch the plinth project evolve over the first weeks, and to feel my own expectations change as well. In the beginning I simply wondered what London would look like from a vantage that so few get to experience. It seemed enough to just be on the plinth, blowing bubbles, or eating a sandwich, taking pictures or phoning friends and family. I considered the project only from within the perspective of my own experience in the space.
As the weeks have passed and plinthers began interacting with the watchers below, to be on the plinth doesn’t seem enough any more. I feel driven to do something, and my ideas for interacting with the space are now much more related to the work that I do, the groups I identify with, and my image of self.
I’d like my hour on the plinth to continue the collaborative storytelling tradition of Cast On, although I’m not sure yet what that will look like. Perhaps I’ll record my experience on the plinth, and share it with Cast On listeners in a special podcast. Or maybe I’ll pile the plinth high with sweaters, and tell the stories of their creation. Or maybe I’ll sit and knit a special project, and speak of life’s milestones; of birth and death; of growing children, and aging parents; of casting on and binding off; of lessons taught and learned.
