Manly Sweater - unmentioned errata

As I was knitting "the Manly Sweater" by Kate Wisson in Stitch n Bitch: the knitter's handbook by Debbie Stoller, I came across an error when binding off the shoulder. I looked online for official errata but while I there were some for the book there were none for this particular pattern. Ravelry had the correction I originally tried (more on that below) but it doesn't really solve the problem. (If you just want the correct, skip to the bottom.)

In the pattern, you knit the front and the back identically up till when you shape the neck and shoulders at which point you have 87(95,99,107). The back pattern then reads

"Right side:*BO 7(8,8,9) sts, work 25(28,28,31) sts, turn. Place rem sts on a holder. Dec 1 st from the neck edge every row 4 times; at the same time, BO 7(8,8,9) sts from shoulder edge 3 times. Break off yarn.
Left side: With WS facing, join yarn to shoulder edge. Work as for left side from *-23(23,27,27) sts rem on holder for back."

So in summary across the top from left to right the fate of the original 87(95,99,107) for the back should be:

[(BO 7(8,8,9)-work 25(28,28,31)-ssk-23(23,27,27) on holder-{ssk}-work 25(28,28,31)-BO 7(8,8,9) - I put this line in to show that for each size the second (or in theory the first) ssk (marked by {} needs to be omitted and replaced with a k1 for the number of stitches to add up (or by adjusting one of the other numbers) - but if this was the only error in the pattern it wouldn't really be worth mentioning. I also only just noticed that the left side says "work as for left side" when it should say right but if I didn't notice that the first time, it can't be that important.]

BO 28(32,32,36)-Dec 4 at neck edge-23(23,27,27) on holder-Dec 4-BO 28(32,32,36)

Other than the comment above - this adds up to the number of stitches for the correct sizes.

The front reads

"Left side:*Work 42(46,48,52) sts, ssk, turn. Place rem sts on a holder. dec 1 st at neck edge every other row 8(8,11,11) times then every third row 3(3,2,2) times. At the same time, when the armholes measure 7.5(8,8.5,9)", work shoulder shaping: BO 7(8,8,9) sts from shoulder edge 4 times. Break off yarn.
Right side: With WS facing, join yarn to shoulder edge. Work as for left side from *"

So in summary across the top from left to right the fate of the original 87(95,99,107) for the front should be:

[*Yes the ssk rears its head again but just do it once not twice]

BO 28(32,32,36)-Dec 11(11,13,13)-Dec 1*-Dec 11(11,13,13)-BO 28(32,32,36)

The problem with this line is that the total adds up to 79(87,91,99) not 87(95,99,107) - its 8 stitches short. The solution people mention to this problem is just to make the BO on either side 32(36,36,40). This gives you the right number of stiches but then when you come to sew up the shoulder seems - it looks funny - because you have 4 more stitches on each front shoulder piece than you do on each back shoudler piece. It doesn't work.

So coming across this problem - I went back and put the two bind off lines next to each other and I could see the problem.

Back: BO 28(32,32,36)-Dec 4 at neck edge-23(23,27,27) on holder-Dec 4-BO 28(32,32,36)

Front: BO 28(32,32,36)-Dec 11(11,13,13)-Dec 1*-Dec 11(11,13,13)-BO 28(32,32,36)

When you put it like this, the solution (and what the error in the pattern is) becomes clear. The BO 28(32,32,36) match each other and the 23(23,27,27) sts on the holder match with the Dec 11(11,13,13)-Dec 1-Dec 11(11,13,13) which leaves the extra Dec 4 on each side. This step has been omitted and needs to be reincluded in the front. (The actual wording of that section is "Dec 1 st from the neck edge every row 4 times" which needs to be done after knitting for 7.5(8.5,9.5,10)").

If you want the summary of that its

In the front neck shaping after "...every third row 3(3,2,2 times)." insert the words "Dec 1 sts from the neck edge every row 4 times once the piece has reached 7.5(8.5,9.5,10)". (Yes that's clunky in the pattern but that's the gist.)

The only fortunate thing is that this pattern is old and not many people knit the patterns or buy the book anymore (if Ravelry and Amazon is any indication) so that this problem doesn't affect more people.