Is it punishment?

I decided to take a break from my Interlocking Balloons scarf, since I wanted something simpler while I watched TV. I noticed that Scarf Style had the chevron stripes pattern that I had been looking for; I have a bunch of leftover Koigu from my first Charlotte's Web and wanted to use it for a long, stripy scarf. So, I cast on. And try to use the pattern in the back. It's absolutely wrong.

Then I say, "Hey, Debbie Bliss has a chevron stripe pattern!" It, too, seems to be wrong.

So after casting on and knitting about six different times, I decided to figure it out myself. It was easy enough, but my brain wasn't working and I had to go through another six tries before I finally cast on the right amount. So now it's working.

The problem? Both patterns seem to ignore the fact that if you decrease one stitch at either end, you're going to have to increase two somewhere in the middle in order to preserve the stitch count. The pattern in the back starts with a double decrease and ends with a double increase, with two decreases on either end, meaning you're two stitches short. The Debbie Bliss pattern seems to do the same thing, although she, for some reason, has the pattern worked on both the right and wrong sides, so it's not as easy for me to tell (so I might be wrong about that).

Needless to say, I'm annoyed that such a small thing was overlooked. It's the same in game creation, lately: make up the directions, print up the stuff, and let the consumers figure out what's wrong, rather than testing everything in the first place.

And this reminds me to put a link to the errata on the sidebar. :)