FASA Games, Inc.

Sounds completely reasonable to me. Any chance this can sneak in before the dead-tree version is at the printers?

Certainly a reasonable request. While this can stand as a clarification or errata for now, my goal is to have a larger discussion regarding ritual spells in a future book which will put these essential points in a release.

As to the other "thing"... I don't really know if you should fear for their minds. The players do keep showing up and wanting to play more often than my schedule allows. However, oh, the tales I could tell of what happens at my table which isn't captured by an adventure log and beyond the scope of a "mature" discussion of the events. I will say all of my players (with one exception) are convinced a member of their group is "Horror Jesus". The character in question is the dissenting party. And when conducting psychological warfare against the characters, the weak link is the player.

Okay, so maybe there is some cause to fear for their minds

After a fashion you're creating a temporary pattern attached to some item (a weapon, in this case). You could argue that one needs to attuned a matrix, a grimoire, or themselves to this new, temporary pattern in order to weave to it, justifying the need for the basic threadweaving/spellcasting rules. Pauses in the ritual to sleep, eat, fight, etc., are short enough that the created Pattern can sustain itself. If you don't finish it properly, though, it disintegrates, like a spider web in a sand storm, not being a proper or True Pattern.