Best Laid Plans

"It is a mistake to look too far ahead. Only one link in the chain of destiny can be handled at a time."

- Winston Churchill

I had hoped to have Dwarrowdelf out by now, but one of my test knitters (written directions) had some confusion and a hospitalization in the family along the way. I am waiting on her. When I spoke with her on Friday, she said she hoped to finish up over the weekend. Then I have to run the final pattern by my proofreaders.

I do not want to release before this process is concluded, in order to avoid potential errata in the pattern. I also do not want to make the knitter feel inadequate or that she has let me down in any way by taking the test to someone else. These things happen. It is part of the process.

I beg your understanding. The next release in the series will be the Strider Cowl, which I am writing up for the test knitters today. It should be a much shorter interval before release.

Please accept my apologies for the delay.

Taliesin

Fair Elffin, cease your lament!

....Though I am weak and small,

On the wave crest of the the surging sea,

I shall be better for you

Than three hundred shares of salmon.

Elffin of noble generosity,

Do not sorrow at your catch.

Though I am weak on the floor of my basket,

There are wonders on my tongue....''

-from the Book of Taliesin

Most of us recognize the name Taliesin from the architectural work of Frank Lloyd Wright, but in actuality, the name is much older.

Taliesin was a renowned Welsh bard who is believed to have sung at the courts of at least three Celtic British kings. The Book of Taliesin is one of the most famous of Welsh manuscripts, dating from the first half of the 14th century - though many of the fifty-seven poems it preserves are taken to originate in the 10th century.

Taliesin was also a shape shifter, which is why I am naming this cowl/scarf design for him.

This pattern can be worn many different ways, and knit in many different variations. It too, is a shape shifter.

I have written up the directions, but many of you who volunteered to test knit in January did not leave me an email and all I got from blogger was the dreaded "no comment."

So, if you want to test knit and you haven't already got the pattern in your "in" box, drop me a line at susanpandorf@comcast.net and I will reply with your free pattern.

Remember, I am looking for completed projects in January so to paraphrase Johnny Cochrun,

If you want to knit, you must commit!

Thanks to all who are helping me bring this pattern to a wider audience.

Just to spread the joy around, I will be giving away a free pattern (of your choice - Spruce excluded) to one commenter a day through Christmas, randomly chosen by Mrs. Claus (just me - don't get too excited).

I'll announce the previous day's winner in each post this month, If you are the winner, email me your preference at susanpandorf@comcast.net and I'll email your pattern right out to you.

Doesn't that sound like a lot of fun?

Yesterday's winner is: KayKatrn. Email me, girl...

Now aren't you glad you left a comment?

NO STASH SALE NEXT TWO WEEKS DUE TO HOLIDAYS
MAY DO ONE ON THE 3RD
HAVEN'T DECIDED YET.

Secrets

I know that's a secret, for it's whispered everywhere.

- William Congreve

I bet there are more secrets kept this time of year than any other...

except maybe tax time!

We hide presents in the trunks of our cars. We wrap packages after the kids are asleep. We knit while DH is at work. We don't let our families anywhere near our email account or desk drawers or knitting basket, or any other place there might be evidence of Christmas magic.

One year, when I was eight or nine (yes children, they had Christmas back in the olden days when dinosaurs ruled the earth) I went looking for Christmas presents in my mother's bedroom in November. I pulled a chair over to the closet and felt around on the high shelf until I hit pay-dirt.

And then my mom walked into the room.

Busted!

She didn't yell at me; she didn't punish me. She DID haul EVERYTHING out of the closet, laid it on the bed, said, "Take a good look!" and then piled it back up on the top shelf again.

Christmas was no fun at all that year.

And it taught me more about the delicious joys of anticipation than anything else she could have done. Stopped this little peek person dead in her tracks.

I reserve the right to shake, however. I believe that is protected in the bill of rights alongside the right to bear arms, yes?

My younger brother Bobby was so bad that one year my stepmother, having found a few too many peeled back corners and disarranged bows, came up with fake names for all of us. That way Bobby couldn't tell which ones were his.

She handed us a cheat sheet with every one's pseudonyms listed on Christmas Eve right before opening commenced. I don't remember any of them, except one:

Razzy Ratranker. We later gave the name to our German Shepherd.

Yesterday I promised to show you the project I have been keeping under wraps the past 2 weeks. Knitty demands that no pics appear anywhere public of any pattern you are submitting, so until I knew for sure that I was not going to make the deadline, I kept this scarf/cowl flying under the radar.

I considered holding the pattern over for the Early Fall issue, but I just can't keep it to myself.

In addition to being a peeker and a shaker, I am a blabbermouth!


This is a picture of the front side of the piece. I have designed a 60 inch long scarf with buttons on one end. You can wear it many different ways, You can wear it open like a traditional scarf, or looped like an infinity scarf. You can wind it twice around and wear it like a cowl. Try the buttons in the front or in the back.

And it's reversible. This is the back side.

One side displays a rounded fluted rib, while the other looks like a deep twisted stitch rib on a purled background. It doesn't curl, needs no blocking, and does a wonderful job of blending multicolored yarn with no pooling.

And it's easy. Two row, 4 stitch repeat. Knit, purl, & slip.

I made mine in Manos Silk Blend in Abalone. I wear a lot of gray in the winter and thought this soft color blend of lavender & sage green would lighten up its darker days.

You could do this piece in any weight from fingering to worsted. Just do a swatch, measure your gauge, run your figures and go from there.

I think I'm going to use these pottery buttons from my stash.

I have managed to snag one of the featured pattern slots on Ravelry for January 1st through the 15th and I am thinking of using this pattern for the ad. The price is going to be a minuscule $4.

As I said yesterday, I want to get as many projects on Rav as soon as possible, so people can see how the pattern looks in many different yarns.

If you want to take a whack at it, just let me know and I'll email you the pattern free of charge. All I ask is that you complete the scarf during January as soon as you can. If you don't have time, please don't scam the pattern from me.

The pattern calls for 600 yds. of DK yarn.

Hope some of you will take a flyer and help me test knit this pattern - like 30 to 40 of you?

No more secrets - not between friends anyway...

Just to spread the joy around, I will be giving away a free pattern (of your choice - Spruce excluded) to one commenter a day through Christmas, randomly chosen by Mrs. Claus (just me - don't get too excited).

I'll announce the previous day's winner in each post this month, If you are the winner, email me your preference at susanpandorf@comcast.net and I'll email your pattern right out to you.

Doesn't that sound like a lot of fun?

Yesterday's winner is: Adrienne. Email me, girl...

Now aren't you glad you left a comment?

Delay

"A delay is better than a disaster"
-Unknown

I spent the weekend waiting:

• for the final beads for Poinsettia to come in the mail, so I can begin knitting.
• for news of a dear friend's son and his ongoing battle to recover from brain surgery last week. (If you believe, please offer a prayer for Tyler; if you don't, offer hope)
  
• for my test knitter to finish up Sherwood.
• for the housing market to improve
• for the economy to settle
• for our next leader to be chosen
• for my grandson to open his eyes again (last two times we saw the young family, Conner slept through dinner - good for Mom & Dad, not so much for eager grandmas)

Delays are an inevitable part of life. We don't have to enjoy them, but we do have to understand and accept them. We fuss; we fret; we hope; we pray...

and not one bit of it changes the course of time.

So we wait.

• In hospital rooms.
• In churches.
• In homes.
• In businesses
• In schools.

And while we wait, we knit.

I used to sit on several community boards, and I always took my knitting to long monthly meetings. A fellow board member once asked me, "Do you have to do that during meetings?"

My response?

"You wouldn't like me much if I didn't."

Somehow the act of manipulating sticks and string calms my soul and grants me that which is sometimes all too rare and hard to come by:

Patience, purpose, and perspective.

Delay has something to teach us: about flexibility, about tolerance, about the fact that we are not the ones in charge.

About the true nature of our world and our proper place in the grand scheme of things.

The present moment hangs suspended between the past and future; we live between the dreaming and the coming true. Delay builds character. It tests us. It tempers us.

We can spend our lives fighting every delay in fear and frustration.

Or we can meet the challenge with reverence and respect for the past, grace for the present, and hope for the future.

We choose. And what we choose makes life an eternal surprise or an endless hell.

For us, and for all those who come into contact with us.

*****

Speaking of delay, remember this?


Suie is finishing up her test knit and I am pushing it this week, so Sherwood's long delayed release should be later this week, God willing.

Good news for those of you who have been patiently waiting.

My other priority for the week is to get Poinsettia far enough along to get the pattern out to Maria the wonder knitter by the weekend.

So what do I have to share with you, while we wait together?

How about a few pics of another upcoming Aperitif?

Diamond Girl (yes, from the Seals & Croft song - I just dated myself)



Yarn: Handmaiden Silk Twist in Stardust


And yes, this one has beads. But I still place it in the aperitif category because of the easily memorized and executed stitch pattern.

In the meantime, here's a final pic of my grandson Conner modeling his Sea Baby ensemble to tide you over.


Cute, huh? And his eyes are open!

All things come to those who wait.

Eventually...

Progress

"All our progress is an unfolding, like a vegetable bud. You have first an instinct, then an opinion, then a knowledge as the plant has root, bud, and fruit. Trust the instinct to the end, though you can render no reason." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Fear not, Garden Varietals, work continues on Sunflower. I am just finishing up the central mahogany section of the shawl/scarf and ready to begin the tiger section.

I don't know if it really shows up in the pictures, but I am pleased at way the lace pattern is forming.Once blocked, I think it will be lovely.

I love how a lace pattern transforms into a completely different animal when you knit it circularly. Too much fun...

For example this little arrowhead like pattern becomes concentric flower shapes once knitted.

I love the way a circular piece looks; I am less enthused by the fact that it keeps getting bigger.I am already up to a 32 inch round, and I have a 45 and a 60 inch waiting in the wings.

Hey! There's a reason I gave myself an extra month on this one!

Evelyn tells me that the Poinsettia sample is in. She is going to send me a picture. Don't worry, I'll share.

*****

Here are some alternate yarn suggestions for the AspenGlo Wrap, since the Maiden Hair is a fairly new fiber:

The Woolen Rabbit Opulence

Colinette Tao & Mohair

Fiesta Yarns La Boheme

Fiesta Yarns La Luz

Artyarns Silk Rhapsody (any of them)

Handmaiden Fine Yarn Camelspin

Artyarns Regal Silk

Handmaiden Fine Yarn Silk Maiden

Any of these would be lovely.

You know, one of the reasons I am publishing the Aperitif Collection is, quite frankly, self serving.

GASP!

Last year I really struggled to come up with inexpensive, yet thoughtful, gifts. I just hate to feed the Xmas machine that runs at the local mall 24/7 from mid-October on.

Luckily, Ravelry came to my rescue with an endless assortment of lovely, quick, cheap...

(I think we should rehabilitate that word. Cheap has taken on an undesirable aura in recent years. Perhaps now that gas costs $4 and the princes of Wall Street are running for the hills, we can begin to value again the virtues of frugality, rather than consumption. Okay, I'm done now. Time to climb back down off of the soapbox.)

Gift ideas. If it weren't for Jared Flood's hat pattern, I would have been lost. I made a ton of hats last year.

And I just figured I probably wasn't alone.

Speaking of Aperitifs, Maria - the wonder knitter - has posted first pictures of her Leaves of Grass scarf. Only she made it a shawl by using a larger needle size and some Noro yarn she had lying around. And hers is red. I'm guessing she won't call hers by the same moniker...unless her grass is a radically different color than mine.

You can take a look here:

Nice, huh?

Pattern will be on the market sometime next week, as soon as I finish mine and get some decent pictures. (I'm going to try and corral my DH into taking some of Zinnia, AspenGlo and Leaves of Grass actually being worn. What a concept!)

*****
I ran across this great joke when I was researching Soulful Parent, Soulful Teen, about the difference between leaders and managers:

Two people were managing a work crew cutting through a thick forest. The leader climbed a tree, looked around, and shouted down, "Halt! We are going in the wrong direction!"

The manager said, "But we're making GREAT progress..."

Sometimes direction is more important than progress; think I'll go find me a tree...

Aperitifs

"The measure of achievement is not winning awards. It's doing something that you appreciate, something you believe is worthwhile. I think of my strawberry souffle. I did that at least twenty-eight times before I finally conquered it.

- Julia Child

"Girls just wanna have fun."

-Cyndi Lauper

I love to cook.

Sometimes I haul out my Julia Child, four bowls, two pots, all my measuring cups and spoons. I devote the day to my appetite for chocolate mousse.

It is delicious...

But also time consuming, fiddly, and rich beyond belief. You wouldn't want to eat it every day.

(Well, maybe you would, but you'd never admit it in writing.)

So I have a little sorbet, or a biscotti and a cappucino. Something light. frothy, easy, and quick.

Because sometimes, simple is better.

Most of my designs are intricately put together, tightly planned (dare I say, fiddly?) affairs. They are challenging and require attention to complete them properly. They also feature heavy beading. They are the knitting equivalent of the French Chef''s chocolate mousse.

As I pushed through the final rows of Zinnia last week, I felt the need to take a break now and again.

I had this yarn I had picked up at Threadbear in Lansing MI over the summer. Charming by Elegant Yarns is a two-ply fingering weight wool that stripes like Kauni or Noro. I wear a lot of green, so I picked a color that shaded from evergreen to olive to grassy to chartreuse, and everything in between.

I began to play with it. The yarn was so gorgeous by itself; it didn't need as lot of pattern to distract. And therein lies the beauty of it.

Once you get through the leaf pattern at the bottom, the lace pattern spools right out in eight easily memorized rows.

And the scarf served as a palate cleanser; the perfect balance to the more complex patterns in my basket.

I have several ideas for smaller projects (scarves, mitts, hats, etc.) rumbling around in my noggin, but they don't seem complicated enough to justify my usual fee.

And I thought, "What if I offer these little appeteasers on-line only (to keep costs down) for $4 a pop?" These simpler projects would be easily within anyone's budget and feature easily memorized and repetitive motifs. They would not neccesarily be lace, although this first one is.

So, here are first shots of Leaves of Grass, on its way out the door to Maria, the wonder knitter.


























Soon to be followed by Rapunzel - a wrap out of Handmaiden's scrumtious new yarn Maidenhair;









Pumpkin Patch - a variegated solid scarf with a nifty little pumpkin cable design in Handmaiden's beautiful Camelspin;



and Mossy Glen - a scarf in a variegated sock yarn (Woodthrush) from Rio de la Plata.

I am calling them aperitifs, which I was introduced to in Paris as the answer to the question:

"How can I monopolize this table on the Champs Elysee for four hours, without ordering any actual food?"

I was a student. I was poor. I could sip my kir royale for hours.

Now my children are students and I am still poor, but that is the subject of another post...

A good aperitif whets the appetite for more substantial fare. I hope these patterns will serve as a good introduction and alternative to my more complex and difficult work.

Why?

Because sometimes you want chocolate mousse beaded lace (current projects: Sunflower, Drizzle, & Sherwood)

And sometimes you just wanna have fun.

Julia (and Cyndi) would be so proud...

She's Come Undone

"She's come undone
She didn't know what she was headed for
And when I found what she was headed for
It was too late"
-the Guess Who

Well...

I wore Zinnia to Stitches West.

I thought I was done...

And then I came undone.

One of the reasons I use test knitters is for pattern feedback. In other words, I am not only interested in whether they can knit the pattern as written; I am also concerned with their level of enjoyment.

This is where Zinnia came undone.

We had a rebellion in the ranks. Jeannie emailed me Friday night asking if I was sure I really wanted to complete each outer point of the pattern separately, with the attendant breaking and joining of yarn and weaving in of multiple ends.

She politely suggested I warn potential buyers of this deadly disaster slight inconvenience in advance.

Now, knowing I am not perfect (HA!) I listen to people. And I pay attention to what I hear.

And this was the result...

This is the first time I have redesigned a piece AFTER it was blocked, finished, and worn.

Because nothing is too good for my knitters. Happy knitting isn't the only thing; it's EVERY-thing!

So I cut off all the ladybugs and separate points, pulled back two pattern repeats, and reworked the edge design.

Stay tuned...

*****

What else came undone this weekend?

Well, anyone who has been reading my blog for a while knows my computer has been stretched to its limit in the past year. I want a new one, but budget constraints dictate otherwise.

Until now.

DH dropped my laptop. It is now held together by a wing and a prayer...

And a vise clamp.

New laptop is on order. Happy birthday to me (next month.)

Zinnia is well into her cosmetic makeover and on schedule for her Saturday release.

Because what comes undone can always be redone.

Hey, it worked for Humpty Dumpty...

Or not...

"All the king's horses and all the king's men..."

Well now. There is their first mistake.

They should have drafted a determined knitter. We would have gotten it done...

Calling All Speed Demons!

Maria, the wonder knitter, is busy with another project she has taken on for the Ravelympics, so I find myself temporarily without a test knitter for Zinnia

I would like to get the pattern out by the end of the month, so I need a quick knitter. The knitting on this one is much easier than the other Garden Variety scarves - repetitive pattern.

If you can knit; purl; yarn over; knit 2 together; slip, slip, knit; and slip one, knit two together, pass slipped stitch over, you can knit this one.

Oh, you also need to be able to read a chart. Pattern takes one skein of seasilk and the beading is optional. In the interest of time, test knitter may choose to omit them.

Here's a recent progress pic. Can send first two charts today and last one on Monday.
Hope someone can help me out in my hour of need. Otherwise, I'll have to ask the knitmaker's elves. And you know what a hassle elves can be. They used to work overnight, back in the shoemaker's era, but now that Santa got them all unionized...

Well, now they want hourly breaks and time and a half. To say nothing of health insurance and retirement benefits. Yeesh...

Sunshine On My Shoulders

Sunshine on my shoulders makes me happy
Sunshine in my eyes can make me cry
Sunshine on the water looks so lovely
Sunshine almost always makes me high

-John Denver

You may have wondered where I've been...

Then again, you may be used to it by now.

You may just shake you head and figure the hermit has gone back into her designer cave.

Now there are two words I never thought would go together...

"Over here we have the Calvin Klein sabre tooth rug, which is complimented by a lovely Martha Stewart Home mastodon tusk."

Anyway...

Tuesday afternoon, my wifi connection died. I grimaced, got up off my fanny, and plugged my laptop (which was now a desktop) into my hard cable connector.

Yesterday morning, that died as well.

You know how they say no man is an island?

They're wrong.

I couldn't post, couldn't chat, couldn't print, couldn't surf, couldn't email,

Couldn't RAVEL for God's sake!

So I un-Raveled. At least until DH got home and hooked me up again. Phew!

On the other hand, I got lots done around the house.

And I got some terrific shots of our gal, Crocus Pocus.

Yep, she is done. Finished. Complete.

We have grown so close over the past two weeks, that when I tossed her loveliness over my shoulder, and danced her around the room yesterday, you didn't hear a peep out of her.

(And, if you'd ever seen me dance, you'd know that takes fortitude - either that or a lot of trust. I have THREE left feet!)

She didn't even question my intent.

Just lay there on my shoulder and cozied up to my neck.

And, even without the sun streaming in the window, I felt the sunshine on my shoulders all day long.

I am very pleased with how this one turned out. I was a little afeared the Garden Variety Collection might start out with a whimper.

But the color (Dandelion) that seemed a little too intensely chartreuse for my liking in the knitting, all came out in the wash.

No, she didn't run. But the act of blocking nicely diffused the color, turning into a breath of spring.

Instead of a shout in your face.

The beads on the points are perfection.

And I love the little periwinkle blue edging on the last two rows and bind-off.

She lies just right on the shoulders - not quite a shawl, but substantial enough to have an impact, frame the face, and draw the eye upward from my, shall we say less than attractive but more than ample, ass-etts.

Now, I had a lot of you volunteer to test knit and I have started a database, but my question to y'all is this:

Anyone feel particularly called by THIS project as opposed to Sherwood?

Anyone a speed-demon, chart-reading, crochet-hook-beading, lace knitter who can commit to finishing it by the end of the month?

Anyone have 450 yards of seasilk or mini maiden lying about the house? (Plus a little extra of a complimentary color, if you want to add the contrasting border.)

Anyone have any other fingering weight that wants to be a scarf instead of a pair of socks?

Anyone dying to play with 2500 size 8 seed beads?

Anyone's size 4 needles getting rusty?

Anyone want the perfect spring accessory while it is still , oh I don't know, SPRING?

Have I got a deal for you!

Email me at susanpandorf@comcast.net or include your email in a comment (Some said they want to knit, but Blogger didn't give me their addy.) and I'll get back with you later today, or tomorrow for sure.

And you could be knitting on your own little crocus by the weekend!

Cause everyone could use a little extra sunshine in their lives...

Cockeyed

"When the skies are a bright canary yellow
I forget ev'ry cloud I've ever seen,
So they called me a cockeyed optimist
Immature and incurably green."

- Rodgers and Hammerstein

I have these wine tumblers from Sur la Table. They were a Christmas gift from my father and step-mother.

I don't know how well you can see from this picture, but there is a line halfway up the glasses. Below that line is printed the Italian word, "PESSIMISTA" or pessimist. Above the line, the glasses herald, "OTTIMISTA" or optomist.

They bring new meaning to the question: Is the glass half empty? Or half full?

Now I am a half full kind of gal, as you might expect from someone who turns her face to the sun on a regular basis. Ever since fighting my way back from clinical depression some years back, I have determined to keep to the sunny side of the street, whenever possible.

Of course, into each life a little rain must fall. Otherwise nothing (including us) would grow.

This morning on the Sunflower Society boards, TreeFrog shared the following bumper sticker slogan with us: Life isn’t about how to survive the storm, but how to dance in the rain. (unattributed)

How true.

Optimism serves me well in this life. It keeps my eye on the long term outlook, rather than the short term forecast. Today is cloudy? I just wait for tomorrow. Today is raining? I dance. Today is the fortieth day and fortieth night of rain? I build an ark.

Do I look like I'm stupid?

I digress...

Optimism is closely allied with its kissing cousin: hope. And hope enables us to bear what we must in this veil of tears, knowing that tomorrow "the sun'll come out."

Life according to Annie...

Hope in a better day and a better world is an essential part of a fulfilling life. It allows us to keep faith with our human potential.

Hope bears us up when we are down. It fills our common cup past the ottimista line to overflowing.

It helps us fulfill our promise.

Speaking of promises...

I hate to make promises I can't keep. And yet, I always seem to come up short with y'all.

I feel as though I am perpetually running late when it comes to my designs. I come up with ideas about 3 weeks after they would be on track for a well-scheduled release.

The crocus blooms are fading into memory and yet I still have to get Crocus Pocus through her test knit prior to release (hopefully in two weeks, if one of my volunteers is a speed demon.) Iris is already in design, but I will probably struggle to get her out in May.

Things always seem to take longer than I anticipate. Partly, it is the test knitting, which everyone assures me is an essential part of the design process. Partly, it is the fact that I learn by doing.

Which means I make a lot of, ahem, let's not call them mistakes; let's call them modifications.

I look at the pieces while I am working on them and as I progress, the yarn teaches me:

• About the pattern.
• About the bead placement
• About the fiber
• About how to translate an idea into a largely two dimensional medium, like a shawl.

Of course, I also can't leave well enough alone. Because good enough isn't, well...

Good enough. Not when it could be better.

As Crocus Pocus took shape in my hands, I began to see how I could make her better.

• Close up the YOs in the main crocus pattern with beads to enhance and draw in the diagonal lines to a more vertical configuration.
• Add YOs to the inner border to lighten up the points and keep them in harmony with the lace pattern.
• Redesign the center back point to bring it into proper alignment with the diagonal points along the sides.

And once again, what I thought would be done a week ago, has taken me a week to complete.

SIGH...

But I didn't mean to break my promise to you. You know, the one where I said I'd have finished pictures today.

I didn't lie...

Not exactly...

I'm just overly optimistic.

You Say Eh-RAY-tah and I Say Eh-RAH-tah. Let's NOT Call the Whole Thing Off...

MARS SUSAN NEEDS WOMEN TEST KNITTERS!

I need a couple volunteers to test knit Sherwood and Crocus Pocus. Both are smaller scarf projects that involve basic lace skills and crochet hook beading. Samples do not need to be completed in original yarn, as I will use my own versions for the pattern picture. Let your own imagination fly free...

What do you get? You get the pattern free of charge and get to be the first on the blogosphere block to knit one of these beauties!

And if you call within the next five minutes, we'll throw in a set of ginsu knives...

Not really. I just got carried away...

What do I get? A chance to de-bug and make sure that other knitters understand my pattern.

What do we get? A chance to make new knitting friends (my favorite part!)

Time is of the essence, so please take a pass if you can't free up the time to knit one of these within the next 2 weeks or so.



























And now for something completely different...

It astounds me how many designers resent people pointing out their mistakes. I have heard horror stories of non-responsive, angry people insisting, even when confronted with the truth in black and white, that there could not POSSIBLY be an error in their pattern.

I don't do that. For many reasons:

• I believe no one is perfect
• I believe my mistakes teach me humility
• I believe humility brings me closer to God
• I believe there is an unspoken contract between designer, yarn producer, and knitter: to work together in good faith to bring forth, not only a beautiful and satisfactory FO, but also a rewarding knitting experience.
• I believe denial and self-delusion are defeating attitudes
  
• I believe in my knitters: when you're right, you're right
• I believe we are all in this world together, and we had better help each other through
• I believe you've probably had enough manifesto for now...
  
  Anyway, I have held off on a comprehensive errata posting for Moroccan Days/Arabian Nights. (Forgive me if I've already told you this, but...if I had had any idea how many times I would type that extremely l-o-n-g moniker, I would have named it, "Fred!" Or maybe, "Omar!")
  
  Not because I didn't want to admit my mistakes. But because I wanted to make sure all of them were corralled into the same enclosure, before I started branding them with the Sunflower logo. Now that four different knitters (some chart-readers, some written direction aficionados) have completed the first half (making it through the pattern once, before repeating) I am hopeful that we have hogtied them all. But I make no promises...
  
  Errata are wily little critters. They run when they see someone comin' round the mountain. And they are notably ornery cusses, throwing off numerous attempts to tie them down. But most of all? They are masters at camouflage. They hide out in the sagebrush, right under our noses, resisting many attempts at detection until some intrepid knitter actually looks closely at the directions and hollers, "Wait a minute, sheriff Pandorf! I think we got us a live one..."
  
  So, a big and humble thank you to all my deputies. Without you, our wild world of knitting would be a lawless wilderness.
  
  

  Moroccan Days/Arabian Nights Errata

  Chart A, row 41, stitch 20:

  Should be purl, not knit. Written directions are correct.

  Chart C:

  On rows 7, 9, & 11, 2nd stitch in from edge should be a knit 2 together. All right side rows on this chart begin with a beaded yarnover, k2 tog. Written directions are correct.

  Chart G4, row 19, st 40:

  Should be YO, not knit, as written.

  Schematic:

  I meant to put G1 & G3 on the right side triangles and G2 & G4 on the left side triangles. Directions are correct. Diagram is correct. Label is specious.

  Pg. 8, Written Dir. Chart A

  Row 8 should read: (P1, k1tbl) twice, (bead1, k1) twice, k2*, not k1* as written.

  Row 17 should read: Repeat to last 7 stitches, not 8 stitches, as written. Chart is correct.

  Page 12 at bottom:

  Should read:

  End panel

  Row 1: (WS) Purl. Row 2: Knit. Row 3: P1, slide 20 beads close to RH needle, k1tbl, forming a beaded loop, k2; rep from, end p1. Rows 4 -8: Knit. Row 9: Knit 94, knit 2 tog, knit 94 (189 stitches)

  Pg 13, one third of the pg. down, after line beginning with Next Row:

  Should read: work chart D (leaf shadows) over next 27 stitches, not 26, as written.

  “It is unwise to be too sure of one's own wisdom. It is healthy to be reminded that the strongest might weaken and the wisest might err.”

  - Mahatma Gandhi