Must Keep This Quick

Deadline knitting. I'm making a Diamond Fantasy Shawl for my Mom's birthday. Her birthday is coming up right quick, but that's not the only reason I feel like I need to buckle down and get this thing finished ASAP. Other contributing factors to my growing panic are my desire to make this rather large, along with my not knowing how many pattern repeats it's going to take to reach this undetermined, satisfying size, topped off with my not knowing how much time life will grant me to work on it between now and when it needs to be in the mail. (Whew, that was quite a sentence.)

So here's what I've got so far. Sirdar Just Bamboo in Oriental Blue. As the name suggests, this ribbon yarn is 100% Bamboo. I wasn't sure how I would like the ribbon yarn for the shawl, but it's working out nicely, I think.

I'm just starting the fifth pattern repeat. I think I'm going to do at least eight repeats. But who knows, that could change. Right now, it's just a tad longer than 36" across the wingspan.

I'm not sure I'm going to need to block it. See how flat it already lays? The yarn is so slippery it just slides past itself and evens up all on its own. I do love blocking, though, especially lace. Anyone ever blocked bamboo lace before? Does bamboo hold the block? The yarn store steered me away from cotton and towards bamboo when I explained a good blocking was important to me. But now that I see how even the yarn wants to be all by itself, I'm not at all sure if blocking will have any influence anyway.

Either way, right now, I've got more knitting to do.