And, finally, I blocked my vest, which made a big difference. The lace pattern really relaxed and the whole thing ended up fitting me pretty well I think. I really love wearing this thing - I like how it’s kind of funky and prissy at the same time. The only problem is that now I only want to make lace Koigu vests. Maybe that’s not such a big problem...--Whitney
I finished the neck and arm holes off with a few rows of garter and a VERY loose cast off. --Whitney
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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. 
I really had to have this Koigu as soon as it came into Purl. The acidy yellows and greens interrupted by streaks of tomato red were pretty exciting to me. I thought it might be cool to see how this whacky, kind of psychadelic yarn would look in a traditional lace pattern. So, of course, I turned to Barbara Walker, queen of stitch patterns.
My first love was the Milanese Lace pattern (Barbara Walker 2nd Treasury of Knitting Patterns). Sadly, I saw from my swatch that the Milanese Lace wasn’t going to work for this project - way too busy - but I will definitely revisit it with a solid Koigu.--Whitney