I’m sad to say that my recent knitting output has been reduced to this:

My February socks (Jaywalkers) are still not finished, and have become February/March socks.

The reason for my lack of productivity? I spent the past week in New York City, and despite my typical delusional knitting packing, I only managed to finish a few inches on the Jaywalkers, and to squeeze in an hour or two of dishcloth knitting in the dark while en route.

But New York was great fun. I was guiding some high school students and teachers and their family members, and they couldn’t have been a better group. We saw three Broadway shows (Wicked was my favourite), and had plenty of time to explore the Midtown area of Manhatten, where we were staying.

My husband was along as a helper, so that made the trip even better. He snapped this photo of me on Broadway…talking while walking, nothing unusual there!

On our last day in the city we spent some time at the Museum of Modern Art. After being delighted by works by Picasso, Van Gogh, Pollock, and Warhol, I stumbled upon this:

It is Mike Kelley’s Untitled 1990, an installation piece comprising “found blankets and dolls.”

There was something so surprising about finding these worn and kitschy handknit and crocheted pieces laid out among the more typical works of art, even though there were also honeycomb sculptures and cardboard creatures like this one:

It was a bit disturbing and yet somehow comforting to think that the artist rescued these yarn pieces out of bins at thrift shops and gave them an importance never intended by their creators.

How many times have we seen little guys like this one, and never thought that they should be in a museum with works of art by the greatest artists of the century?

Hey, little orange guy…it was great to see you at the MOMA.