The bear itself came out pretty cute. The directions are written for each needle separately which I found very confusing (I use a long circular for magic loop, not two needles) so this was purely a technical issue. Once I got it rewritten so it made sense to me, pattern is easy and finished product was cute.

Vest

No one else has mentioned this, so probably the error is mine, but I had a terrible time getting the numbers to work out on the bind off and cast on rounds of the vest. Here’s what I finally did. The only way I could get the numbers to work out on round 8 of the vest (to get from 49 stitches before the bind offs, to 40 stitches after the cast ons), was to do the following:

1. bind off 11 stitches (this leaves you with one stitch on the right needle)
2. NOT counting the stitch on the right needle, purl 13 stitches
3. NOT counting the stitches on the right needle (in other works you need to purl 2 more before you can cast off), cast off 11 stitches (this leaves you with one stitch on the right needle)
4. NOT counting the stitch on the right needle, purl 13 to the end of the round.

When you cast on the 6 stitches, this should get you to the correct numbers.

I thought the vest was too short and ended up adding about 5 rounds (added them in the ribbing this time - too lazy to go back - but next time will add them in the stockinette rounds).

Used the Miraculous Elastic Cast off to finish the vest (also called the Simple Stretchy Bind off - link below to Very Pink Knits tutorial). My favorite stretchy bind off so far.

http://verypink.com/2015/03/04/simple-stretchy-bind-off/