Blissful no more

A confession:  When I was working on the Cinnabar Scarf for the December 2006 issue of Magknits, I ran out of time, so when I judged the length to be long enough to photograph, I bound off, weaving the tail in very loosely, and took my pictures, figuring I would undo the bindoff and finish the last couple of repeats when I had more time.  So what?  So nothing...until I undid the bindoff a few days ago, started knitting, looked at what I had just completed, and said, "Hmmm, that doesn't look quite right."   I had printed my own pattern from Magknits to refresh my memory, and was following the directions there....  Uh oh.

The photo at left shows the correct version, and the one at right shows the error.  Can you see it?  No?  Oh, well never mind, then.

Okay, I have to admit it's not a glaring error, but it IS there.  If you examine the "Seafoam" stitch portion of the scarf--the horizontal waves-- you will note that two purl ridges separate the dropped stitch sections from each other, and for the sake of symmetry, I wanted two purl ridges to separate the entire "Seafoam" section from the "Double Ribbed Mock Cable" section, both top and bottom.  And that's how my sample scarf looks--except for the first section I knit following my WRONG instructions.  In that section, the top of the "Seafoam" section is separated from the "DRMC" section by only one purl ridge.

I haven't heard from anyone who knitted the scarf and noticed anything amiss, which is why I was tempted to just leave well enough alone; ignorance is bliss, right?  (Feel free to toss in your own favorite cliche here.)  If it were me, even if I was pleased with the scarf before I found out it wasn't quite right, it would be hard to look at it in quite the same light after I had realized the STUPID designer goofed when she wrote up the pattern.

At left is Cinnabar's backside, with the section with the error  near the bottom of the photo.  You can also see the backside (sans errors) in the top photo here; you can tell back from front because there are two knit stitch ribs forming the "spine" of each Mock Cable, instead of three; also, there are three purl ridges at the bottom of each "Seafoam" section, instead of two--I couldn't figure out how to avoid that.  So now it is also clear what I meant when I said the scarf is "very nearly" reversible.

This has been a long-winded mea culpa, but if you're still reading, I want to make an offer to all who have completed (or partly completed) this scarf, and in their newly non-ignorant state are now less than happy with the result:  send me an email, and I will send you free of charge any one of the patterns available on this site, along with the corrected Cinnabar Scarf pattern.  ( I've already notified Kerrie at Magknits, so hopefully the pattern there has already been updated.)   

Edited to add:  I checked Magknits today and the pattern has not yet been corrected, so also email me if you would just like the updated pattern.   

Comments

[stacey]

Well, at least you did find the error! It isn't a glaring one, but it's hard to let it go when you know it's there!

[Carson]

wow that is one long mea culpa;) and "stupid" designer?!..doncha think you're being a little bit hard on yourself? I'm usually pretty good at spotting errors (professional habits die hard) but I STILL can't see it... it's so infintessimal.
But I do understand the whole "You know it's there" thing.

[Holly Burnham]

This scarf id definately a keeper....how lovely and good color choice. So few patterns look good on both sides...this is the nice feature.