So Blocking Does Work

Hiya from a.,

So generally in my crochet I've avoided blocking whenever I could.  This was for a few reasons - main among them was that we didn't really have the space for me to lay out stuff for blocking.  I didn't have anything to block on and no way to keep a certain feline away from it.  But now I have easy access to a washing room, those foam squares from the dollar store and a door to keep the b. out (you'll see why that is integral in a sec). 
This was also a project that required serious blocking.  I decided to go blind (well blinder) and and work with lace weight yarn.  We are talking seriously skinny - Noro lace weight.  At times it was so thin, it was like thread.  It was a triangle shawl from the new Interweave Accessories issue.  Often when something calls for lace I'll step it up to fingering to make my life easier - but I just fell in love with the blues in this Noro that I had to try.  I will say that this was one of the harder projects I've done, as the yarn was so delicate and the hook small.  We're talking watching all of the extended editions of the Lord of the Rings only completed about 1/2 of it.
Anyways, here is a photo of the shawl pre-blocking:

Man, you can always count that four legged fella to walk through the frame.  I then soaked the whole thing and then rolled the shawl in a towel and pinned it out.
Here are the results:

I have to admit, that I knew blocking would open up the lace work, but I didn't expect it to do so much.  You can now really see the striping that the Noro does and the different stitches used.  I do believe that this experience has taught me that blocking is a good thing for certain projects, and definitely worth the effort.

See you space cowboy....