Socks and more socks

I saw this yesterday when I was searching for something...I think my next pair of socks will be a pair of pairs!

I'm working my way up the leg on the grasshoppers, and I think I won't do any increases until immediately below where my calf muscle pushes out. That would be about 6 inches instead of the 3 in the pattern.

I've also totally given up on my springtime socks. The mohair in the yarn is just too much for me. A little bit of mohair is okay (a la Schaefer Anne), but even when I was spinning it, my hands were itching. I think I'm going to give it away. Sigh.

Since I have today, Thursday, Friday and Monday off, I'm hoping to get some cleaning and crafting done. I have a huge pile of clothes to give to St. Vincent de Paul, and I think I'm going to pack up some of the books that I read infrequently so that I can get more space in the living room. That's the problem with marrying someone who loves books as much as you do...we have hundreds of books, and no place to store them. We need a house simply to have some room for our "library". If I get enough cleaning done, I'll be able to knit or spin with a clear conscience.

A couple of days ago I watched Shaolin Mantis, one of my favorite David Chiang movies. It has nothing to do with the Shaolin temple, instead it's the story of Ching spy infiltrating a Ming loyalist family. While overall the fights are not the best, the two with Lau Kar Wing are awesome. The other fights are a bit slow, and you can almost feel the actors counting the moves--I do this, you do that, I do this. The fights with Lau Kar Wing are a lot faster and more fluid, mainly (I think) because he's a great martial artist. The praying mantis in the training scenes is one of the best creature-actors I've ever seen. At one point he's holding a twig, and he looks like he's going to start pole-fighting. So cool. After watching that, I had to watch the final fight from Sword Stained with Royal Blood. This movie has an extremely obnoxious female lead and a lame plot, but the fights with Kuo Choi, Chiang Sheng and Lu Feng make the movie worth the money. I had this on an old xth-generation video tape and bought the Celestial version when it came out. Every time I need a little dose of kung fu, I pop it in.