Squares and Mittens

I have been meaning to write a post for a week. What do they say about the best of intentions? I have been cold all day today. I just made a nice cup of Irish Breakfast tea ( Don't you just love Amazon? You can link to anything.) I just buy this in my local grocery store. I like my tea strong with a dab of milk, I love the flavor of this one. I would like to try some from other companies. If anyone has suggestions ... let me know. I am home early from work today. I have been trying to not overload my schedule. The shampooing and blow drying just kills my shoulder. I was grateful for a slow day today. I am still going to Physical Therapy and Occupational therapy. The OT is for my fingers. I injured the middle and index finger during my fall. These two fingers are working at less than 50%. So..we are trying some aggressive therapy on them. On the knitting front..... I finished three squares for an comfort afghan. I read about this on Mama Bear's blog about a week ago. They are asking for 7 inch squares in acrylic yarn. I used some Caron's Soft in a country blue. It is such a trick getting the squares the correct size. I always do my gauge swatch. The one that is plain garter stitch is a smidge bigger than seven inches. I hope it is still usable. I need to get those off in the mail tomorrow. Also I have a tale about mittens..... The mittens I posted are for the neighbor boy. He lost the ones I made him for Christmas. These are made from Paton's Merino Wool. I love the variegated color. He has a "camo" colored coat. These should match quite well. But....back to my tale.....I always use Double points for my mittens. I made the first mitten with double points. I started the second one and changed over to Magic Loop. I just felt like switching. Well....... I finished the second mitten, completed the thumb. When I held them together, the second mitten was considerably smaller than the first. I never imagined there would be a difference. Obviously I knit much tighter with magic Loop. So, the second mitten went into the frog pond. I finished the third mitten last night. It was a good lesson for me. Speaking of magic Loop...... I always use a 32 or 40 inch Addi Turbo. The last batch of addis I bought have a problem. The cable is extremely stiff. It feels totally different than all my other Addi's . I have three needles that came with these super stiff cables. I ordered them from an Ebay seller. Has anyone had this problem with their Addi's? I might try to contact Addi directly and see if they will replace them. I am going to cast a Chemo cap on the needles tonight. I like to make them using Berroco's Chinchilla. I have made many of these hats. They are very soft and comfortable with this yarn. The pattern I use calls for one ball of the Chinchilla. I guess that is all the news from "Irishknits". Happy Knitting and stay warm.