I’d already knitted this pattern before so I knew the hood would look better and neater if I made the back and sides without casting off. I kept the stitches on a holder and when it came to knitting the hood, I picked the stitches up from there.
The other thing I did differently this time was to stitch the garment together from the inside as I would normally do. The pattern suggests to stitch together from the right side to avoid bulkiness but I didn’t find this a problem. It made quite a nice decorative panel on the top of the hood too!