F-i-L's birthday vest

I stayed up until nearly 2 Saturday night to do it, but F-i-L got a dry sweater vest, with buttons attached, Sunday afternoon. And praise knit goddess and Halleluja it fit! Big enough around and long enough. He really, really likes it. Unbeknownst to me, green is his favorite color (between him and my dad I'll be knitting green for a very long time).

There was no pattern for this. I knit a gauge swatch, measured hubby, added 2" and cast on. 286 stitches. I did just over an inch of 2 x 4 ribbing and knit nearly 16 inches to the armholes (from the top of the ribbing).

I cast off 2 inches of stitches on each side of the side seam (I had slipped a stitch purlwise on the RS and knitted it on the WS to make a faux seam) and decreases every RS row for 5 decreases, the every other RS row until I had about 18" of width on the back.

For the fronts, I did the same decreases for the arm holes but also decreased 1 stitch each RS row for the v-neck, until I had about 4". I joined the shoulders with a hybrid 3-needle/crochet cast-off (too lazy to find another needle). Then I picked up around the armholes at a 3 st to every 4 rows ration (pick up 3 in each row, skip a row all the way around). Fudging as needed to stay divisible by 6. I worked about an inch in 2 x 4 ribbing. For the front I did 3 st to every 4 rows on the straight aways, but picked up a stitch for each row on the shaped sections (I figured more stitches for convex, fewer for concave) and knit until I couldn't keep my eyes open. I did a two-row button hole over 4 stitches for the button holes.

Yarn used was Filature di Crosa Zara in Fir on US 5 KnitPicks Options needle (used just under 11 balls). Buttons are faux horn from MJ Trimming.

I wish I had put in some pockets. Since I have over 2 balls left, I could have. I'm thinking I might do a BSJ with the leftovers, though.

I'm so glad that's done. I've barely knit anything since the marathon ribbing Saturday.