Dear esteemed comrades,
It is, somehow, startlingly, November; needless to say, I am thankful for the lot of you, who have shown up month after month with curiosity and brilliance in abundance, contributing your intelligence and talents to this little club of ours. It has certainly been a year here at CLEO's, and we wouldn't be where we are, having as much fun as we are, without you!
This month, with the holidays right around the corner, we're going to keep things simple and sweet. Our reading will be from esteemed poet and essayist Mark Doty's 2001 book Still Life with Oysters and Lemon – one of my favorite books of all time.
More of a long, languid essay than a research book proper (it comes in at a whopping 70 pages), Oysters is a meditation on Dutch still life paintings, but really, on how the objects we love enough to actually use make up the stuff of a life; or, as Doty puts it, how the I becomes the eye. It feels like a good text for the week of Thanksgiving, because Doty mostly writes about the objects (and people) that have meant the most to him over the course of his life.
Rereading it for the zillionth time this week, I started to think about how this idea applies to us as crafters: is a yarn stash really a sort of elaborate still life? Or, what would it mean if we started to look at our stash that way – not as a pile of materials we need to plow through and use up, but something that could be looked at as an art object all on its own, a testament to our individual eye, our taste, our plans for the future? I was also thinking about the objects we make and use -- not just our gorgeous, elaborate sweaters, but the potholders, or kitchen towels, or plain mittens we knit or crochet to be worn and worn out.
Take a look over the reading linked below (I kept it super brief this month, just a little meditation) and think about what you're most glad to have made, regardless of the reason.
I'm not adding any supplementary material this month, but if I did, it would just be links to old episodes of Antiques Roadshow :)
November's meeting will take place on Monday the 25th, from 6–8 PM. Yes, this is the week of Thanksgiving, so I know it's likely some of you won't be able to make it – if that's the case, please have a lovely week, and for anyone traveling, please do so comfortably and safely. December will be our first month off, so your next reading will appear in the first week of 2025. I look forward to seeing you all then!
With love and lemons,
Meredith