Theme: ravelry.com, a social network for fibre artists
Nora (aka Bozzy) tells us:
The inspiration for the Ravelry idea came via a heart-felt plea from long-time solver Sandra Weir. "I love the 3D puzzles but themes are often heavily on the side of sport or science. Why can’t we have a puzzle about knitting?” she cried. Enough said, and as a sometime knitter and dressmaker, creating the grid was a huge amount of fun for me, too.
The winner of the May puzzle is Michael Crapper of Whitchurch.
This month's review is written by our new puzzle reviewer Alan Chamberlain, aka Komorník.
I do love a good yarn, don't you? Thanks to Bozzy's far from PLAIN grid, and Graham Fox's superbly crisp photograph with the light playing on those spools, we could all receive our heart's delight. And for the 'millions of yarn lovers from all over the world', the RAVELRY site got pride of place in the middle row of the top level. Jessica, Cassidy and Mary Heather, we salute you.
Bozzy's grid is full of themed items, which she fits in (apparently) effortlessly. She keeps the snake level well down, with a high proportion of five- and seven-letter items. Maybe the only evidence of real strain comes in the form of the American spelling at day 6, but that is relieved by an amusing, mind's-eye-appealing clue. There are two words slightly obscure (for this UK solver) though I dimly remember MALLEE from O-Level Geography; NAYAR was new to me. I wonder if Nutmeg spent hours looking for a way to clue MALLEE thematically? The clue for NAYAR, however, not only conjures up a picture of superannuated folk putting on their high-viz before nervously crossing the streets of Delhi, but reminded me of my teens: I had a white rayon shirt which I wore for every cricket match until it fell to pieces, it was so comfortable. KEFIR is familiar to me as my wife has some in the fridge. I like the idea of the OWLER: interesting word – does anyone have any ideas on its origin, going beyond a presumption of such people's operating at night?
Nutmeg is (suitably) highly dexterous at weaving clues: her pair of crafty workers for KNITTING NEEDLES will stay in the memory, while the Victorian novelist reticent about love made another nice picture. Nice to see Charles LAMB(SWOOL) in a crossword not as 'Elia' for a change! Seamlessly letting in misdirections is a great skill of Nutmeg's, and the clue for SPINS gives a wonderful example: top bargains do go well in times of recession, but of course we have to divide up the clue in an unexpected place, apparently between closely-associated adjective and noun – then the double meaning of in recession adds to the virtuosity. Other bits of Myristical magic include the use of on party lines in the clue for RAVELRY, the delusive keys to all those lost chests, the Jersey climate and the apparent Southern US origin of the LUFFA: one of those alternative spellings with which Chambers calculatingly sends you turning the pages until, eventually, you tear them, thus obliging the purchase of a new edition every eight years or so. And how neat is LOTTO? Like the perfect revers with no edge or underside showing, such an elegant surface is a sort of Holy Grail for the setter: she must have allowed herself a quiet, contented purr on finding that.
I liked Frank Paul's Tour Eiffel: LE MUR was an easy one for me to get – in fact my 'First One In' – though my solving rate of his devious picture clues is usually quite low.
All in all, a happy puzzle: enjoyable to solve, not too demanding (at least not WORSTED by it), and (for me, at any rate) affording glimpses into one of those many domains in which I feel an admiration mingled with baffled incompetence.
Grid solution
May 2022 solution continued ...
See the full list of solutions and explanations and solvers' comments on our website. Let us know your thoughts in the comments.