perle cotton

I bought new floss at Joanns today. I wanted something violet and maybe to try a variegated floss - I found this "cotton perle" floss. It is variegated and they definitely had violet - both dark violet:
and light violety-blue:
and pink!

I obviously bought all three! I also bought these regular dmc flosses in a range of pinks and a variegated pink and white:

I have never used perle cotton and wasn't sure exactly how to use it - it comes in twisted strands. I was wondering - are you supposed to use more than one strand? I checked on the dmc website . They have a lot of helpful infomation. Apparently, you take the papers off the ends like this: Once it is free, the skein is in a big oval - one end has a tie around the end like this: Leave the tie intact. Snip through the other end like this:
and use a single strand of twisted floss - like this:
This strand will be long - about 38-39" The website suggests that beginners cut this strand in half for a more manageable length. Here is what it looks like in comparison with the six strand dmc embroidery floss:
You can see the twisted perle cotton strand is much different - the website suggests using a #22 chenille needle with this, however I have been using my #24 and it is working great! I really love this cotton perle - it will be a nice cotton-y not so silky alternative to the six strand floss. I have already completed a little project with the pink variegated cotton perle and I will be posting a picture of that in a bit!