Harf Done!

Actually, it's all done.

Finally!

Keeping in mind my horrible photography skills, and I took these with the camera timer, believe me when I say it is much, much nicer in person.

In this first picture, I have it on, but unfurled so you can get a sense of just how big/long it ended up being. I am, for reference, just barely 5' 1", and it reaches just about to my ankles!
I guess my concern that the scarf bits wouldn't be long enough was unmerited.

That blur behind me and around my knees is Baru puppy swarming me trying to figure out what I was doing. We had just played evening fetch and he got a nice big drink of water, so the scarf and my pants got pup-ified. Ick!

I hit a point during the knitting, when I was pretty sure I wouldn't have enough yarn for all 36 rows of the repeat I was working, but I couldn't stop myself from knitting.

I did, however, have the presence of mind to toss in a couple lifelines after the last full repeat. When I ran out of yarn on row 14 it was an easy matter to pull back and bind off. The large amount of left over yarn is what made me finally decide to go with the fringe. I was able to get 88 14-inch strands out of what I had left. So there are two strands in each point and 22 points on each end. Rather generous fringe, but my goal all along has been to use every scrap of yarn.
(Ok, I had like 3 fringe strands left over. I'll save them for repairs.)

What I like about the scarf length is you can wrap both ends from the front, around your neck, and back down the front and have length to spare and keep your chest warm. I think anything shorter might have looked goofy in this construction.

Stats
My own design using a cable pattern designed by ivanovaknits.
Three skeins of Invernal yarn from Aslan Trends. This is an angora/wool/polyamide blend, so it's very warm, soft, and snuggly, which you totally aren't getting from the bad pictures I took!
US 7 needles

Blocking Barriers
After taking the pictures, I stuck it in the bathroom sink and doused it with cold water (it's handwashable), then ran it through the washing machine's spin cycle (I'm so bad).
I took it up to the attic and quickly realized the blanket I block stuff on (when I bother to block stuff) wasn't big enough.
I also realized that if I really stretched it and pinned it the cable hearts would get distorted. So I settled for stretching it gently by hand and smoothing it out, but not pinning it.
Really, I just wanted to level out the ribbing a bit.
Once it's dry, I'll copy down various statistics so I can re-write the pattern so a normal person can follow it.
Then I shall send it off for the contest!
Seriously, now, I'm going to win First Place so there is no point in you entering.
Save yourself the heartbreak.