What is this?

This is the yarn I bought when I went yarn shopping with my mom a few weekends ago. We went shopping so that she could buy yarn to start a knitting project. She is newly interested in knitting, so she wanted my help making project choices. I was interesting in going to some yarn stores to see what they had but I wasn't interested in buying any yarn because I have a long list of Christmas crafting that I am still chipping away at and I have plenty of yarn. However, we made the poor (?) choice of going to Needlework Unlimited's outlet store. As with most outlet stores, everything in the store was being discontinued or closed out and was marked at 50% off or better. That means SALES and THINGS THAT MAY NOT EXIST AGAIN and TEMPTATION! Besides getting yarn to make a scarf for my mom's Christmas present, I ended up with the skein pictured above. It is Chacabuco Multy by Araucania, which is a bumpy, slubby, thick and thin cotton yarn. My plan is to make a cowl for myself as a quickie, all-for-me, post-Christmas-crafting treat. Well worth the $7.75, in my opinion.

This purchase marks the second time since February that I have bought yarn for myself. The first purchase was also recently made and also in tandem with buying yarn for a Christmas project. That purchase was actually these skeins, which I wrote about here.

They were purchased in order to make a pair of felted mittens. I need to replace the pair that I wore constantly until I lost them last winter. I chronicled my despair in this post. I've been wearing the replacement pair with the cotton thrums and they are working well except for three things.

1. They are a little delicate. I feel like I need to be kind of gentle with them so that I don't rip the thrums out. For example, they wouldn't hold up well if I wore them on the dog walk while holding on to two dogs straining at their leashes.
   
2. Also, they are a bit thick for things like unlocking doors. The thickness is like a little cocoon, which means my hands get steamy hot inside of them, but the bending and moving is quite limited.
   
3. Lastly, the thrums are white, which means they very quickly became dingy looking as soon as I set them down on something dirty. Another reason why I can't use them when I walk the dogs.
   

Basically, they are keeping my hands warm, but I miss my felted mittens. The two skeins of Nature Spun totaled $7.00, so for less than $15 I am going to get two things that I need to keep me warm while I trudge back and forth to work. Now, all I need to do is get all of those Christmas presents finished.