Something done, something new started.

I finished the Tara stole! Yay! I haven't blocked her yet, because the DH and I have some guests over, who we are very happy to see. His brother and wife came into town as soon as I returned from France, and we have been running around having a great time, so blocking and photos will begin next weekend. In between finishing the Tara stole and leaving for France, I cast on for the Mystery Stole 3. Unfortunately the joining period for this yahoo group is over, so if you are interested in this project, you'll have to wait for it's creator pinklemontwist to self-publish the pattern commercially from her blog. I finished clue 1 today, here's how it looks so far.
I know that a variegated yarn is not ideal for a 'lace picture' type stole, I intend to overdye this a nice deep oxblood red when it's done. The yarn is Knitpicks shimmer in the colorway Flower Garden. I couldn't even make out the pattern until I pinned it out on the bed! No more carzily variegated yarn for me! The pink is just too much. But I am using up the stash, so this is a good thing, even though the overdyeing will make a big mess.

I have been running around a fair bit these last couple of days, yesterday we went to Kassel to check out the Documenta art festival. If you haven't heard of it, it's an art festival that takes place every 5 years, and has international as well as local participants. I snapped a few photos...
The biggest and most striking piece in my opinion is the giant poppy field planted in front of the central art gallery as a protest against the current military activities in Afghanistan. Protest songs sung by Afghan women and children are played at certain times of the day, it's all very moving regardless of your political opinion. I will not share mine here, this is a knitting blog, not a political blog ;).
Dystopia is a common theme at such things, for this piece you walk through a red room with red lights with nothing in it but a staticky radio, then you enter a dark room with a metal train containing metal containers, which is a representation of transportation of biochemical hazardous materials. The train is nearly impossible to see and photograph, but I thought that people leaving the red room all disoriented and nearly blinded by the red light looked kind of cool, so I took a picture of them.
We also took a bus to the mountains outside the city and I took some photos of castles. Unfortunately the giant statue of Hercules is undergoing repairs, so I am leaving you with some links instead if you're interested.

Cheers,

Ivanova