Listener 4008

[cruciverbali]

This week's crossword is Knitwear by 149

[Clamzy]

Thanks cruciverbalist - let's hope it's less complex than last week's.

[cluelessJoe]

thanks c .. have a good weekend

[kayakamina]

Thanks for the link.

[mad max]

many thanks

[Deviant]

Thanks. Time to do a bit of research on knitting, perhaps?

[bobbycollins]

I may have to consult my mother, although with some trepidaion - the old dear recently rang to ask if by any chance I knew of a small vegetable to fit _EA

My mother-in-law went one better when enlisting my wife's help to finish a puzzle. Helen pointed out her error in the entry GO ******* (the answer was GO BERSERK) Ma-in-law rather haughtily pointed out that her answer WAS in Chamber's

[bobbycollins]

The site has blanked out APESH*T

[midazolam]

thanks c - i might do the same bobbycollins as i have no idea what knit and purl actually represent in the knitwear world. Will it pull the wool over our eyes...

[Rapparee]

Thanks for the link, C.

Let's hope there's no needle this week.

[midazolam]

i don't think i have ever finished a crossword with the grid looking such a mess! i think i will have to sit down in the morning to ensure every entry is ok.

good challenge but i thought there could have been a few more thematic answers. the final grid construction probably prevented that - was this 6 years in the making?

[u10]

Has anyone else noticed that the title in the Times today is KnitWARE? Is this significant?

[midazolam]

interesting u10 - it must be a mistake in the paper - i think the online "knitwear" is the better of the 2

having double checked all the entries - i am glad there are no ambiguities thereby resulting in a tightly-knit crossword

[segue]

Forgive my backtracking - can anyone explain and diglot and egged to me (4005)?

[bobbycollins]

My copies are in work, so i'm answering blind, but as I remember "egged" was egghead minus a&h (lovely clue)

[midazolam]

egghead (intellectual) - ha (but isolated / separated)

d (daughter) + giglot (giddy girl) - g (losing head)

[AHearer]

Thanks, cruciverbalist, for giving us the link -- nice not to have to hang around on Saturday morning waiting for the paper to arrive (OK, I suppose the lad deserves a bit of a lie in, but I'm raring to go!).

I'm worried by one point in the rubric, which suggests one entry in the final grid is a proper name not in Chambers. I seem to have a properly knitted grid with all the entries in Chambers. Do I need to unravel it all?

[AHearer]

Oops, cancel that -- I'd assumed a name was in Chambers, and now see it's not.

[Scorpius]

Having finsihed this puzzle earlier on today I cannot really see the point of it. Some of the clues are terrible - there are superflous words all over the place. I don't think I'd describe it as a tightly knit puzzle.

[AHearer]

I agree, Scorpius. In several cases, too, the wording of the clue was twisted so as to construct the wordplay but lose the clue's surface sense. In one other case I felt the spelling chosen to make a supposedly amusing surface sense was dubious in terms of the cryptic interpretation. The construction was clever, but it was rather let down by the clueing.

As a new recruit to The AnswerBank, I think I've now outstayed my initial welcome. See you again in 50-odd hours!

[Walterloo]

Well, I have to admire those of you who've finished it! I can't seem to crack this. I know what the thematic answers are and early on I thought I'd worked it out that by looking at all the clashes I had to enter answers that were all different from those clued to get real words, but now my feelings are that some must be the clued answers, but if so, why some and not others? I can't see the 'pattern' to it.