Yes, that is completely normal. Blocking is what really makes your lace open up the design and show off the beauty. As a beginner lace knitter, it’s normal to be worried about that, and everything is perfectly fine.

Note that the lace shawl will grow in size in the blocking process depending on how stretchy the lace pattern is and how much you stretch it for blocking, so don’t be surprised if/when it turns out to be bigger than you thought it would.

In my opinion, blocking the lace shawl is the most gratifying thing in lace knitting because of the transformation it goes through 🙂