Started the right front side of the Chinese vest last night

Here is a not-very-good spread-eagle shot of the vest (it looks foreshortened because it was too big for me to photograph standing directly over it, and I didn't feel like climbing up on a chair, so I took it from a distance):



Here is an attempt to photograph the garter and seed-stitch border along the bottom:



I'm enjoying working on the vest. It's nice to know that finishing will not involve miles and miles of mattress stitch. It will involve a lot of picking up stitches to knit edges, which is bad enough.

One thing I have learned about stitch-holders from this project is that you have to be jolly careful with them; it's possible for the stitches to work their way off the tips even when the holders are closed, if you aren't really careful. (It may be partly because I use the cheap old Boye kind that you can buy in any craft department, instead of springing for more expensive nicer ones. But when you need a total of nine stitch holders (two for the four underarm stitches, two for the back shoulders, two for the front neck, two for the front shoulders, one for the back neck), it's not appealing to buy stitch markers that are $1.50 or something like that apiece. (Not to mention I didn't realize I needed them UNTIL I needed them)).