[carrottop71]

The thought of killing it, and not being able to resuscitate it, is very scary to me. I can see why it would be a good thing with something like a shawl to improve the drape. I just can't make myself do it. I made a shawl with a lovely light weight acrylic for a wool allergic friend and it didn't block as well as my natural fiber shawls do but I couldn't make myself kill it.

If you pin a shawl down on your blocking board, after it dries it will go back to its original size once you unpin it. If while it is on the board and dry, you can lightly steam it and it will then hold it's shape and you would have killed the yarn.