Where's blue when you need it?

The Choose Your Own Adventure Pi Shawl KAL at the EZasPi Yahoo Group/ has me intrigued. I would like to join in on this one, it will start in April, just about the time I finish up the baby socks. I envision a summery wrap knitted in cotton thread and swirling with lace patterns.

My stash diving excursion netted 4 large balls of crochet cotton in shades of white, creamy white and almost ecru. I also found balls of blue, variegated blue, pure white and black. I think that will be enough thread, and if I want to add a color, I can pick up another ball, or maybe arrange a swap with my partner in crime, Lady Alwen. I hear she’s on a stash reduction diet, and if she needs some eggshell white or variegated blue and white crochet cotton, we could swap at the April meeting.

I knit my first swatch yesterday, using 2 strands of thread and #6 (4.00mm) needles. It’s a bit heavier than I wanted, I’m trying a single strand today. As you can see, I didn’t think ahead, and ran into biasing on my sample. I’m not sure if the cotton will bias in the round. Today’s sample will tell.

I thought I might tea dye when I was done, to even out the shades of white. I remembered I had an extra box of blueberry tea, and thought I a light blue pi shawl would be nice. I can hear you all laughing now. As you can see, it didn’t end up blue at all. I got the berry color, not the blue. It’s a light pinky-mauve color. When it was wet, it was pinker, overnight it dried to an even more amazing shade of smashed berry. Definitely not my color. Now I’m intrigued as to what other colors I can get from tea. Will green tea dye my thread green? What about chamomile or mint? I googled tea dye, but didn’t find any references to colors, just techniques.

By the way, I am not slamming Bigelow Tea in any way. They have wonderful tea with an amazing range of flavors. Vanilla Hazelnut is my favorite, and my DH has been drinking Cinnamon Stick for years. However, it is rather unfortunate that Blueberry Harvest tea does not dye cotton thread blue. My bad.