More About the Funky Grandpa

I'm speeding along with this, having nearly finished the body already.
I began, very conscientiously with a tension square!  My tension is slightly small but the measurements in the pattern have been done over a blocked sample.  While I'm conscientious, I'm not that conscientious so am slightly winging it here!  The second picture shows the first few rows.  It begins at the back neck with a provisional cast on which you can just see as orange thread.  The back is then knitted down to the bottom of the armhole.  As you can see I am striping turquoise and pale turquoise with some hot pink.  The pink will repeat on the sleeves.  I then picked up stitches from the shoulder and did a shoulder saddle (the pink bit).   The fronts are then continued from the saddle strap.  it looks very curious but does work out in the end.  The cardigan fronts are shaped and then when the fronts are down to the bottom of the armholes, the whole thing is joined and then knitted as one piece.  There is a small amount of side shaping but very little to distract from stocking stitch.  I'm about to do the last stripe and then the rib before casting off and starting the sleeves which are knitted top-down too.
The pattern has some useful tips on stripe placement and how to make the jumper suit any figure and so far has been very straightforward.  For anyone wanting to try top-down knitting, it's a good easy piece to start on.
Next instalment due next week when I have started picking up the sleeves.​