Errata

The explosion in the number of knitting publications out there seems to have led to a corresponding explosion in errata. Errata pisses me off.

Years ago, I spent eight hours helping a friend figure out a baby sweater in Last Minute Knitted Gifts. I finally rewrote the pattern. Later, when I found the errata online, I realized the errata had errors.*

My copy of 2-at-a-Time Socks had significant errata. Worst of all, the errors were in the tutorial sock. Way to make sure that no one ever knits socks two at a time!

My latest problematic publication is Noro Mini Knits. The one pattern I picked has an error in the raglan sleeve shaping.

Even the explanation isn't entirely clear. I've reknit these sleeves three times now.

Here's what I want:

• Test knitting of the final version of the pattern.
• If a company knows that there is an error in the pattern (and posting errata online indicates that the editors know about any errors), they should print out the errata and send them with all subsequent shipments of a book, at least until that book can be reprinted. Don't even think about shipping out those books without including the errata.

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*It's debatable, of course, but I'm going to argue that "errata" is a printed list of corrections and not the errors themselves. If I want to talk about the "errors" in a book, I'll use the perfectly lovely term "errors." A bit like "signage," no?