Not so Fast Easy Vest

Hm... after uploading my photos for this post, I noticed that they all have really similar colors. Not on purpose. I guess I'm in an earthy neutral-color-y phase. Maybe that's why I was attracted to the dried Oak Leaf Hydrangea blossom (above). I have been working on some Newfoundland Mitts in brown and blue--does that count as colorful?

But more about those in another post. At the moment I'm stuck on the Fast Easy Vest (from Men In Knits ) that I'm making for A. In spite of a couple stupid mistakes on my part (all fixed, I will add), this has not been a difficult knit. But now I'm stuck on the neck decreases. The instructions say to "shape V neck by dec 1 st at neck edge every 3 rows" 15 times. To me that could be read two different ways.

Way 1: Decrease row, followed by TWO pattern rows, followed by next decrease row
Way 2: Decrease row, followed by THREE pattern rows, followed by next decrease row

The problem with the first approach is that every other dec row is on the WS--which makes it hard to have left and right slanting decs, doesn't it? The problem with the second approach is that, as cauchy pointed out, the neck would be really long. So far? after asking for advice, I've had one vote for each approach. (GK votes for #2 to avoid the WS dec problem and cauchy--who's knit this vest before but can't quite remember what she did--votes for #1.) So it's a tie. But since I'd already started doing the second thing by the time I asked for advice, I'm just going to forge ahead and see what happens. Here's what I have after 5 decs:
Truth? To shape the decs,when I'm on a WS row, I'm actually turning to the RS and k2- or ssk-ing as needed. Is that weird/necessary?

My big accomplishment this week was finally FINALLY completing the Simple Yet Effective Shawl Whoo HOO!

Oh man, is that the wrong side there in that picture? Duh. Anyway--nice, easy pattern. And it was lovely to work with this alpaca (from Kraemer Yarns), which drapes beautifully. Really. But because it's DK weight, the thing took me forEVER, even on US 10s.
Planning to gift this to my MIL next weekend. In the meantime, I can't decide whether or not to block. It's only a little crinkly, which I kind of like--somehow it suits this shawl in this yarn--and the weight of the shawl kind of stretches everything out. Blocking might make the eyelets in the center and edges more uniform. But how important is that?