I just made this vest up as I knit along, trying it on every 5 inches or so. I had to redo the beginning a few times, mostly because my flat gauge and my round knitting were producing wildly different results. I ended up using a 6 needle and casting on 176 stitches, decreasing down to I-can’t-remember-how-many for the waist and increasing to I-can’t-remember-how-many for the chest. I didn’t worry too much about keeping the stitch pattern neat throughout  the shaping because I figured the whole thing was way too busy for anyone, including myself, to notice or care.
 -- Whitney