Knitting this top down instead of bottom up and using lettlopi instead of Alafoss.

-Cast on 86 Sts and followed yoke pattern. I added an extra increase row after finishing the yoke, so I had a total of 236 Sts before dividing for sleeves:

67 Sts(front)- 51 Sts on hold (sleeve)-cast on 12sts -67 sts (back)-51 Sts on hold (sleeve)-cast on 12 Sts.

-After dividing for sleeves I had 158 Sts for body.

-Knit straight down until I reached hip length, then increased 12 sts (increase 2 Sts at each side of the sweater (4 Sts increased), knit one row-repeat 3 times) to give a little shape and avoid the pattern at the bottom pulling in. I felt this was an important thing to do since on some rows you are using three colours at the same time and it can pull the whole sweater in if your floats ar tight. I did my floats very loose since I wanted a loose finish to the sweater which I could block without loosing the stitches and pattern (I wanted the bottom as a t-shirt, not a tight finish as the usual sweater).

-Knit sleeves TAAT. Did not decrease until the very end, before the pattern and only a couple of stitches as to get the Sts count correct for the pattern.

Very happy with the result, a total bonus that I knit this top down and was able to shape it to my body. I personally could not have done this with a bottom up approach.

This is a tricky pattern to knit if you are a beginner as there are several rows where you knit with three colours at the same time, and not only two.

The name: I finished reading Eowyn Ivey new book: “To the bright side of the world” while casting off. Loved the book to bits!!