Which looks best?
The swatch on the left shows Fancy Stripe in Knitting before I blocked it. I love the way it  looks like cables and lace.  I also like the puffiness of the design.
This swatch has been blocked. The pattern now lies flat and doesn't look like it has a cable.
I think if I was making a scarf, I wouldn't block it and just let it drape naturally but for a shawl I'd probably go ahead and block.

The pattern isn't hard but the repeat is hard to remember. All the even rows are the same so correcting mistakes is easy. Download the pattern from my website.