Diamond Fantasy Finished and Blocked

Just in case you missed it, here's what my Diamond Fantasy Shawl looked like on February 2nd (I think this photo was the night I started it):

And here it is this morning:

And of course, as soon as the shawl hit the floor, DS had to come and step on it. It's now had the "Kid Stomp of Approval" as every one of my projects seems to need. LOL!!

I'm just thrilled with the way a severe blocking worked with this yarn. I'm getting VERY spoiled by it. What kind is it, you're wondering? It's wonderful, inexpensive, luxurious 100% merino fingering weight dye your own from KnitPicks dyed using Wash Fast dyes from ProChem. I used all but a very small bit of two hanks, so it's just under 860 yards. Whew!

I did a very cool thing to block the shawl, although I didn't do it on the top edge. I threaded crochet cotton onto a yarn needle and ran that through each point, then used that to pull the points out. I LOVED it. Much easier than trying to line up all those points using pins! It's not my original idea, but I can't remember where I first heard of doing that.

Project Specifics:
Pattern: Diamond Fantasy Shawl from Sivia Harding
Yarn: KnitPicks' Dye Your Own 100% Merino fingering-weight yarn using a dye recipe from Primary Fusion book and dyes from ProChem
Pattern alterations: I only did 9.5 repeats since I was worried about running out of yarn, and I didn't purl back before starting the I-Cord edging (which rocks! It doesn't pull in at all, since you're not binding off with a stitch that will restrict the stretch in any way).
Time to make: started February 2, 2006, finished April 25, 2006. In between I made a few other things, of course, having CADD (Craft Attention Deficit Disorder LOL!!).