Finished the shrug, started a vest.

I was pleased to finish this one, but my smile soon disappeared.
You know how when you finish something and you put it on and go to the mirror to check yourself out, then you go and find someone to show it to, even your cat?
I chose people instead of cats this time, what a mistake that was.
I chose my ex and my daughter.

Some of their comments went like this:
"What the h*** is that?"
"It looks like a half finished jumper that you didn't pull all the way over your head"
"Are you sure it's finished?"
"What does it do?"
"Never heard of a shrug"
"I didn't know that was what you were doing"
"Yeah Mum"

This is the joy of living with people who do not understand knitting.


I consoled myself by casting on for my practise vest.

It's a practise run because I haven't knit anything with a neckline yet, and had a huge ball of 100% acrylic to use up. I say it's huge because after I took the plastic off it just went boof and sprang open, so I put it in a big bucket.
Can anyone foresee the problems I'm going to have yet? I can. (notice my lil foot by the big bucket)

It is 375g and the colour is very similar to Sully from Monsters Inc. I don't know if I'll wear this in public yet.

This vest has a V neck and I am scared at the prospect of knitting it.
The pattern says to use a pair of needles, but as my seaming is awful, I am changing it to knit in the round, then change to 2 needles at the armholes and go on from there.
How hard could that be?
Just cast on double the amount needed, right ok so that's 250 sts.
Then start the ribbing.
This is fine in theory but you really have to concentrate on this first row and get the k1p1 pattern exact. I found out what happens if you accidentally do one, just one, k2 somewhere in the row.
You knit around for about 240 odd stitches before you discover your mistake!

Oh well, I ripped it out and started again. This is where I'm up to. I may need some help when I get to the shaping, so any advice is very welcome.