New Project and it's DAday

I've been running about like a headless chook this week! Not managed to crack into one puzzle. I've bought the papers, saved the pages and have them lined up ready to dig into while on my flight. That'll probably be too late to publish anything about them and the solutions are all out, and they're old puzzles...

I may do a post about solving types of clues. There are lots around but maybe a newbie solver's take would be different from a compiler's one.

I finished the YipYip scarf and it will be glory scarf on my vacation. I started a new project, a variation on the YipYip that includes raised picot ruffle bits on the shells and it's a bit full on. I think it'll be too loud for me. I think it's mostly too loud for anyone over the age of 10. Loud yarn may be better served in simpler patterns than crocheted picot shells. Tell me what you think

It's a bit mental, no? I shall persist because I think this yarn will be impossible to pull back and restart. Once I started on this path, I had no choice. I'm glad I decided against adding clear beads - that would've been well OTT.

Aw, it's bit like a wild butterfly.

Anyway, I'll be digging into DA's puzzle after the morning coffee. Wish us luck.

Like gold and glitter!

I'm mostly through the ball of yarn, Zauberball 100 in Pale Glimmer,  and the shawl isn't going to be big enough for me. It'll maybe just do as a triangle scarf, but I like them a mid-size between shawlette and shawl. Something I can easily tie the ends together around my neck and let hang loosely for contrast.

I needed another ball and there are limited specialist yarn stores in my area. Plenty in Melbourne! I know one shop, Morris and Sins, but they charge a flat rate of $25 for shipping with online purchase. Even standard AusPost doesn't charge that, in fact they charge half that! That's so beyond insane and such an obvious money grab it's sickening. another shop I know charges less but I'd hoped my friend could pick the yarn up for me if I paid over the phone - no go. she's swamped. I googled about and found one yarn store locally (that's within 20km) and phoned them up.

The lady answered she didn't have any more Zauberball 100. It was on order. So bummed out! Then she said she didn't order much of it as most customers preferred the mixed fiber yarn over 100% wool - fair enough. Then she says "I mean, I do have one ball left...it's colourway 2170.." THAT'S WHAT I WANT! beyond delighted - when do you shut? Will you hold it? I'm on my way!

Got there and it's slightly different, favouring more blue over pink and getting more purple mix through it but that means more variety for my project. She even gave me a $4 discount for taking the last ball!  Score!

I also spied this very pretty yarn nestled beside the Zauberball display...isn't it jolly and bright! Sparkles and rainbows! Dreamy, shiny soft...

Looking forward to getting this worked up into something lovely. Even though I'd read a review of it that warned "Then on the yarn itself: i love the colours and the fact that they’re so randomly mixed, but the yarn bleeds (when wet). It bleeds bright neon pink. It bleeds like crazy. Like nothing I’ve ever seen. Like fluorescent lemonade. Like somebody having a really bad period. Even after three rinses the water turned an alarming pink. I was amazed there is still so much colour left in the shawl. And luckily it doesn’t seem to have affected the other colours. But one thing is for sure: this shawl is not to be worn on damp or rainy days."

Flourescent lemonade - how stunning. I cannot wait.

Knuckle down...

I've got a busy week ahead. I'm packing and getting ready for a two week trip to the USA. I've got Girl Guides to organise while I'm away and a family to sort. I also have to pack.

I may not have time to get through all the crosswords this week, and while travelling I might get to a couple. I think the Boston Globe does a cryptic and the New York Times. I'll be in LAX for a few hours so I can grab an LA Times. Even though I am American, I have sneaking suspicion I'll be just as clueless about the up to date stuff in their puzzles as I am about Australian ones, since I emigrated in 95'  to the UK and a lot has changed since then. I do have a few back issues of Games magazine I've been saving. I've had a subscription, through its many changeovers, since I was 15.

I'm bringing a few crochet and knitting projects - just small ones. I've double checked knitting needles and crochet hooks are allowed as carry-on in flights and so far no one's twitchy about yarn tools as dangerous weapons.

My main goal is to catch up with family and friends and eat my weight in seafood. I'm not taking my laptop, just my phone so will probably post pictures and brief, general descriptions.

So much to do...I'm not a happy traveller. I plan to sleep deprive and use American EST to reduce jet lag. I wonder if it'll work. Experimentation is fun.

Until then I have butter scented, seaside dreams...

The Yip Yip Scarf

I'm having to rename this from Russian Scarf to the YipYip scarf in honour of the YipYips from Sesame Street. You know...the Yip Yips!



I was admiring my new scarf as it was being created and falling in love with it as it' colours are coming along beautifully, blending subtly. the beading is working a treat. I'm adding a bead as I go this time and not pre-stringing. I find this way is much better. Not only am I not wasting time pushing a hundred beads along every few feet damaging the yarn, but I can get them placed just where I want them.

As I was taking a picture of the scarf I noticed them, in the blue and pink...Yip Yips. I think they're just known as the Martians but everyone knows what I mean when I say Yip Yips.

Once you see them, they're all you see! Yip Yips everywhere! Can't wait to get this finished. I'm so in love with it. I'm using Zauberball 100 which it says is still machine washable and that'll be wonderful. I'll still hand soak and machine spin cycle. I hope to get this done before I travel to Boston next week.

Friday's The Age cryptic by DA 16/5/14

I'm learning that I'm a bit of an old fashioned person when it comes to crosswords. This is news to me as I like to think of myself as modern, adaptable and open to new things. Why is it when I come across slang in a crossword, I turn into a whip cracking pedant? (I even just googled if I need a hyphen between "whip cracking" and not finding a fast answer I'm still unsure and it bothers me. Who am I??) My other frustration is the inclusion of local knowledge - because I wasn't born and raised here in Australia, a lot of this stuff isn't second nature to me and I often get WTF moments.

When working through this weeks' DA I only got 11. I'll half claim another 4 because I managed to get the answer through wordplay but I was so convinced the answer was wrong because it was local slang I discounted the answer as correct.

What I absolutely do love about the DA puzzles is they challenge this pedant inside me, and make puzzles what they should be: a fun challenge. A challenging fun thing to do. With jokes! Yes crosswords can have jokes. Cheeky jokes, in the club jokes, "you had to be there," jokes. I'm still not feeling like part of the gang so when I completely miss the joke I feel left out. I have to put that aside. I'm not being excluded, I'm being invited! By taking this very real challenge to learn how to work these puzzles, I'm invited into this club every time I pick up my pencil and have a go.

I'll have to pluck out my ego and shove into the #5 pocket - because except for a condom or a tampon that pocket is useless. Perfect for egos needing knocked down in size. There's no space in my life for being a crossword snit.

I know it's Sunday, but these puzzles do take longer to solve. You know I've never managed to get to the Saturday cryptic - I feel bad for DS I don't give them a better go.

Here's what I've got, click it to big it:

1A - She tends to the young noble receiving backhand (13)
Nurse? Nanny? Aupair? Mom? No! Welcome to the 20th century where a woman can also be a PAEDIATRICIAN. Yes, I did go the nurse route first, that's as much a jab to me as anyone. I don't get the word play entirely. Yes I see PATRICIAN as a synonym for "noble" but how we insert "AEDIA" into that I can't see.

10A - Hardly rush Punter after conceding boundaries (5)
Which part is the definition? Not easy to see. I saw "rush" followed by "Punter" with a capital P and thought it might be a person, like Geoffrey Rush. Why else capitalise Punter? Well after many quit/retry from another angle, I can only assume the Capital P is there to completely annoy us. Red Herring! We want a synonym for "punter" GAMBLER and "conceding boundaries" is some odd way of telling us to remove the first and last letters to give a synonym for "hardly rush" or AMBLE.

11A - Treasurer, by mid-april, loves to be an offensive stick wielder for the nation (9)
This is one of the slang/local knowledge things I mentioned earlier. I got the answer fully on breaking down the clue but it looked wrong so I ignored it. Australia's current Treasurer just released the party's budget on Tuesday and it's dominating the news. This made getting Joe HOCKEY an easy guess. "love" is cryptic crossword speak for O and we can garner a further O out of "offensive" Now I had HOCKEYROO, but that's not a word, and what's "stick wielding" all about? That would be part of the definition. Locals or sport inclined people would quickly guess the Australian field hockey teams, mens and womens, are both called the Hockeyroos.

12A - NZ-Oz writer pursued by demonic personality in Sydney CBD (4,4)
I spent far too long trying to find the name of an author - wouldn't you? Doesn't that seem an obvious definition. I'm learning the hard way that obvious is a gotcha! to DA. Sadly this leaves me a bit stumped on the word play that leads to the answer. Yes there's a NZ writer named Hyde who died in the 1930's. CBD means business district but not "park" although HYDE PARK is a street in Sydney CBD. Nah, too much twisty-turning for me to get this answer.

13A - Twisted pig angling to free fish? Get lost! (2,4)
I knew "Twisted pig" was telling me to twist the words for pig for the beginning of the answer. Not many two letter from p-i-g so how about a synonym sow? hog? HOG gives us GO H and the rest "angling for free fish" huh?? Fishing for fish? Itching to fish? "Get lost" made more sense and I'd put in "GO HOME" but I was being far too polite, as our answer is GO HANG!

15A - Line found in nightclub certain to elicit admission (10)
I got this from its cross letters. A lucky guess. The answer is DISCLOSURE a synonym for "Admission"

16A - Composer  reproduced viral phenomenon (4)
"Composer" is not us running around trying to find a famous 4-letter Mozart. It's referring to DA himself, and was a hint at DATrippers. I had DA in there for ages, then scrapped and looked at "viral phenomenon" I know my Dawkins and realised it MEME. DA was literally saying ME.

18A - Recording over an outline (4)
4 letter words give such headache. Definition is "outline" a very abbreviated term for a recording is LP we want ANLP, then turn that over to get PLAN

20A - Vagrant got 21-down suit (10)
Jump ahead to 21D to get the word INITIAL, Vagrant is an anagrind and we want to mix GOT with INITIAL to get a synonym for "Suit" LITIGATION.

23A - Harry Potter maybe, or Rowling's own Riddle, fleeing Moaning Myrtle? (6)
This one stumped me but I kicked myself because I know I'd have felt amazing getting it. I still do not understand "Fleeing Moaning Myrtle" and I got hung up on plumbing terms. Even knowing Tom was Riddle's first name didn't help. And there's no "maybe" about it, Harry and Tom are both an ORPHAN.

24A - Pygmy daughter acquires fighting dart, possibly (8)
"Pygmy" is our definition, and not as I'd first assumed, a hint to shorten a word elsewhere. "Daughter " gives us a D and a "fighting dart" is a WAR FISH for DWARFISH.

26A - Next to the hypotenuse (9)
I did google the math term. It wasn't so tedious. We want a synonym for "next to" and  "a hypotenuse is the longest side of a right-angled triangle" so it's ALONGSIDE.

27A - Dirt close to ruining winter coat (5)
Did not get as wordplay is elusive. I thought "dirt close" meant to use the letter T, I thought ruining was an anagrind but no fodder was working. Went back thought close meant last letters which also didn't work. The answer was GRIME, synonym for "dirt".

28A - Taipans transported by royal with utmost care (13)
"Taipans transported" transported means taking something elsewhere and here is an anagrind. Adding a synonym for "royal" KING and rejig those to get PAINSTAKING and somehow we get to add LY to that but I don't see how apart from being a grammar pedant.

2D - Use a chisel to pen crummy morning poems (7)
I got with lots of hints through DATrippers. I had the B so it did make finding the answer easier to whittle down. The hint "Think French for dawn" got me AUBE and then some googling about with word finders got me AUBADES. How "pen crummy" fits, I'm not sure. I'm also told "use a" is fodder and chisel is an anagrind.

3D - Name-changing paperwork contrarily cut exploit (4,4)
I went straight for "Name-changing paperwork" and knew in the UK it was something like "Deepol" at least that's how the Scots pronounce it. I'd never looked up the term before but it's DEED POLL. I can't figure out the wordplay to get me there if I'd not known, sorry.

4D - Hip actor is frightfully pithy (10)
This was my first solve. Frightfully is an anagrind signpost for "Hip actor is" to give APHORISTIC.

5D - Discovered drug torment (4)
Here we get an instruction in one word. I'd just read the chapter in DA's book Puzzled (Don't I sound like a fangirl!) on these clue words and was sharp to see it. "Discovered" is an instruction to remove the cover or dis-cover, a drug CRACK to give a synonym for "torment" or RACK. You have to scroll down for the twelfth definition.

6D - Muse what fellers do in music school (4,2)
Definition is "Muse" but not the proper noun, the verb. "Fellers" here aren't "blokes" either but lumberjacks - who can be blokes but that's not important. "Music school" is a conservatory. Fellers HEW and put the in CON to give CHEW ON. I got it as a guess with cross letters.

7D - Farm needing years to fence creamery? Not half (7)
Full on guess in frustration. Synonym for "years" AGE and half of "creamery" is ACRE - even though it says "not half" he wants half! ACRE. ACREAGE.

8D - Nurse insulates a lean-to dunny for an uncouth parvenu (6-2, 5)
Here's the other slang clue that although I'd heard the term, never assumed it would be in a published newspaper puzzle. "uncouth parvenu"I had RN for too long and it was the wrong word here. We want CUP and insert a synonym for "lean-to" or SHED to get CASHED-UP, and a synonym for "dunny" which is a toilet is a BOGAN. No I had no idea Bogan was a word for toilet, just redneck.

9D - SURDUASS? (6-2-5)
This is a Rebus. They're not used much in cryptics because you can't really offer clues to its solving. I didn't get this but I'm told it's URDU is a "tongue" placed inside SASS which is "cheek" so we get TONGUE-IN-CHEEK. I'd guessed cheek because of ASS so...yeah.

14D - Disaster to dominate expedition for Spooner (5,5)
I had TRECK for "expedition" but didn't get REIGN for "dominate" Spoonerism means to swap the first syllables of the two word to give TRAIN WRECK.

19D - Aspiring parent loudly in favour of one jar (7)
Here "aspiring" is a hint to reverse the word for "parent" in the grid. MA becomes AM. "loudly in favor of" is PRO but I did not get the last two letters that would have led me to AMPHORA.

21D - Partly to explain it, I alter opening (7)
...yeah, no. Did not get this.  Stuffed me up getting its partner clues. INITIAL.

22D - Side to destroy spirit (6)
I can see how a synonym for "side" is MARGIN but what I'm destroying in "spirit" unless it's...Mar Jinn. Homophones, I hates them.

25D - 21-Down heartlessly offers punch ingredient (4)
"heartless" is usually a clue to use a letter from the middle of the following word "offers" having even number of letters makes that hard - do we want the F or the E. I had the I from 26A so use the F for FI?? and a synonym for "punch ingredient" gives us FIST.

There. Done. See you Monday.

The Age cryptic crossword by DP for 14/5/14

Just got through this one and I'm feeling a bit cheated. I managed to solve a lot of this with guesswork and by giving up on the parsing and just hammering through with most likely letter choices. There were a few clever clues I really enjoyed, like11A and 6D. Others were beyond my ken. I think there's a spelling error for 16D but that could be Complier's license using a very old, old, outdated, not even in the dictionary anymore version of a word. Thankfully no strumpets!

1A - Part broken following local tennis star (3,6)
"PART" is to be broken, "following" isn't a signpost here but we want a synonym and here it's AFTER to give the name of a "local tennis star" PAT RAFTER.

6A - Form of refinement (5)
I'm still learning myself but I believe this in an &lit clue with double definition or just double definition. either way,  "Form" here is the 12th definition (scroll down a while) of form to mean CLASS which is also a kind of refinement.

9A - Researcher into former fairy TV series (15)
Definition here is "Researcher" and as to the rest I'm stumped. Fairy TV show? No clue. I got this answer with its cross letters. Someone, please enlighten me.

10A - Overcomes, having feasted badly (7)
Definition is "overcomes" and "having feasted badly" gives hint to an anagram for feasted is DEFEATS.

11A - Move like snake when Hitler's in trouble (7)
Definition is "move like snake" the word trouble is an anagrind for "Hitler's" to give us SLITHERS.

12A - Soviet hospital displays national character (5)
Hmmm, where to begin? Is "Soviet" the definition or "national character" and if it's the latter are we looking for a particular person or a concept? Well, here we have the first of many hidden word clues. The word displays is telling us the answer is "displayed" in the clue. Nestled in soviET HOSpital. ETHOS. Ah, rabbit hole averted!

13A - It's possibly Leeds' turn to produce an outcome (3,6)
"Produce an outcome" is our definition, I did not solve this with the clue, but with the dross letters. I had first used "end return" because i'm rubbish about sporting terms and it fit my cross letters. Seems "possibly" is an anagrind for "leeds turn" to unscramble for END RESULT.

15A - Within it I ate something that gets under way (9)
Red flag should go up with "within" as a hidden answer clue. "Under way" is our definition and "WithIN IT I ATE Something..." INITIATE is our answer.

17A - Worry starting by back door (5)
Worry is our definition because what other word is there for a back door? But is we turn the word "door" back we get ROOD and "starting by" means take the first letter of by B to give BROOD.

18A - Without a care, bad behaviour will find a niche (7)
"without a care" is an instruction to remove the A from CARE for CRE,"bad behaviour" they want VICE, which isn't really a bad behaviour but more a cause for bad behaviour. Either way we get CREVICE for "niche"

20A - Finishes off mouth wash - paddles faster as a result (7)
I struggled here. I think the solution is, and I could be wrong: "Finishes off mouth" means to remove the ending H's from "mouth wash" leaving MOUTSWA, Paddles could be an anagrind - I don't think so, but rejig to get OUTSWAM, for "paddles faster"

22A - Conjuror or drunk priest take number to rocky crag (15)
...WTF? Oh dear. These 15 letter words are a killer! Right, let's look closer. Definition is (trust me) "Conjuror" "drunken priest" means to scramble the words in PRIEST "take number" DIGIT "to a rocky crag" uhm, take the ATOR? I don't know but the answer becomes PRESTIDIGITATOR.

23A - Within lovely limits, an urge to have long pins (5)
I didn't solve with the parsing. The definition is "long pins" in a slang manner. There is "within" but the answer isn't hidden in there (looks again) Nope. Are we alternating letters? anagram?

24A - Thus the Bronx cheer for fruit! (9)
Again, no idea how to crack this clue! Really struggled, but I had enough cross letters to guess RASPBERRY as the definition for "fruit". It's beginning to feel like cheating.

1D - Beg for a bit of apple a day (5)
Definition is "Beg for" and I think "a bit of" is our signpost for a hidden word nestled into "apPLE A Day" to give PLEAD.

2D - Minor visible part of a threat to Titanic (3,2,3,7)
This one has no cryptic way to solve, you either get it or you don't. TIP OF THE ICEBERG.

3D - Means of ventilating plane routes (7)
Double definition here and we want AIRWAYS.

4D - I met these coming from worker's log (4-5)
Apart from "I met" being remixed to TIME I don't know how we make the leap to SPENT. For the longest time I had SLIPS in there.

5D - Encircles with jingles (5)
Double definition again, RINGS.

6D - Nice day - source of poison! (7)
This one's funny because being poisoned by CYANIDE, anagram for "Nice day" would be anything but nice.

7D - Angler's catch is so like a misfit! (1,4,3,2,5)
Exclamation marks usually hint to a pun being in the answer. If, like me, your mind doesn't flip to punster easily, you could find these clues a suckfest. I actually got this one, though! Why didn't clue 2D have an exclamation mark? A FISH OUT OF WATER.

8D - Very wet Austrade organisation including team leader (9)
"Very wet" is our definition, "Austrade organisation" I think organisation being a signpost for AUSTRADE "including Team leader" wants us to add the T. Scramble all together for SATURATED.

12D - Like bishops to to give minced pies to firm friend (9)
"like bishops" is the definition. "Minced pies" means to scramble PIES to "firm" or CO (company) "Friend" PAL put together for EPISCOPAL.

14D - Shakes off chalets of a princess (9)
This one drove me nuts. What does it mean!? I get the "shakes off chalets" gets us DISLODGES, but what purpose does "princess" serve?? Anyone?

16D - Divot drops five in frigid form of folly (7)
"Divot drops five" here they mean the Roman numeral five or V to leave DIOT. "in frigid form" synonym for frigid is ICY and we're to...insert...but that's not spelled right.  No honest, IDIOTCY is not right. I checked several dictionaries. But the printed solution says that's the answer. I'm unimpressed.

17D - Place of inspiration for Archimedes' "Eureka!" (4-3)
I googled "Archimedes eureka" and got the story complete with answer in the title BATH TUB. (As I type this Sheldon on Big Bang is telling the Archimedes story. How's that for coincidence!)

19D - Senior feature of novel derivation (5)
Heh? What's this mean? It means...a hidden word clue. There's no obvious signpost for an action to perform, thing that hints to jiggling letters, no double definition...no I don't think so. No, look if we use "Elder" as out definition we can see hidden in "novEL DERivation. is our answer.

21D - In one month, alternative to an eel (5)
All these hidden clues and there's a juicy in waiting to show me a hidden word...and where is it?! No where! Dissed! Nothing to do with eels is hiding in "one month" Alternative could mean every other letter but nothing. How we're supposed to get MORAY I don't know but I guessed.

There we go. Done. Not the most perfect puzzle. A bit frustrating with the typo in 16D. Looking forward to moving on to Thursday's but tomorrow is Friday. I wonder if I'll take a Thursday break from Friday's DA when it all gets to be too much.

I really must stop psyching myself out over these DAs. Until tomorrow...

Who wants cake?! How about a Quick Cake?

It's true, this is a quick cake. How quick? How about less than 10 minutes to prepare and and 12-15 minutes to cook? Quick enough? It's better than one of those stupid microwave mug cakes, I promise you!

I got this recipe from a friend whose son has an egg allergy. My daughter had an egg allergy, too so it was a great share. Luckily my daughter has outgrown her allergy and is now perfectly fine with eggs but we still make this cake because it's quick, it's delicious and we can muck about and change the flavours to whatever we want.

Using the basic batter recipe, I'll add different flavourings or fruit to make different cakes. This cake comes out thick, dense and somewhat sticky. It's cut into bars and tastes amazing with coffee, tea or just as an on-the-go snack.

Here's the recipe:

1 400g tin of condensed milk. You can use the low fat, full fat, whatever.
1 cup of self rising flour
1tsp vanilla extract

That's the basic batter. No honestly, that's it. Now the flavour side is up to you but this cake has:

1tsp ground cinnamon
1/4tsp of ground clove
1/4tsp ground nutmeg
1generous handful of chopped dates

Preheat oven to 170C/300F.

Put all dry ingredients in a bowl and give a quick stir then pour in the tin of condensed milk and add liquid flavourings (or zest) into the batter and mix well. It will be very thick and while mixing you'll think "This is never going to turn into a batter" and then suddenly it does. It'll be like frosting, and since there's no egg, resist the urge to eat the batter. So tempting...

Pour the batter into a small, greased slice pan/brownie pan  (mine gets sticky in the middle so I criss-cross baking paper to make it easier to lift out) and push it about into the corners. Add in your fruit and just poke it down. Or do the classic thing and add fruit to the batter before pouring. I prefer the fruit on the top and not sunk to the bottom, that's my personal preference but you make yours any way you want.

Bake in the oven on centre rack for 12-15 minutes or until the top is golden and shiny. The middle will give a gentle spring back. It's not a big riser, and is more like a cake bar.

I've used fresh blueberries with orange zest, cubed apple with cinnamon, dates, banana and raisin. so many options, just let your imagination go. Cardamom works nice, too. Aniseed. Honestly you can go giddy with options.

This one was made for lunchbox snacks. The kids will wake up to the smell of cake and hopefully be in a good mood. This is my breakfast cake and I'm brewing coffee now...

The Age cryptic crossword by DH 13/5/14 solved and explained

Tuesday's was much easier than Monday's. I don't know if it's a frame of mind kind of thing, or a mix of easier clues. I don't care, so long as I can crow "I got all but three!" I'm delighted. It's true, All but three!

Here's the pic, click to embiggen:

The orange post-it notes are covering notes I took while on a phone call and are directions. Nothing puzzle worthy so I covered that bit.

There was a bit of a Latin/French theme or just more than a few without being a full-on theme. I am disappointed to see DH use sexist term again. Last week it was prostitutes, this week it's strumpets/tarts. Too many judgemental words against women in these cryptics, and from a few compilers. Tsk tsk I say. You're word masters, use better words.

1A - Watch me after turning it a little(9)
"Watch" is our definition, ME after, turning IT ->TIME "a little" PIECE.

6A - Dozed off when left in Irish clan (5)
"Dozed" is our definition, Word for an Irish clan is SEPT and we want L from "left" in that for SLEPT.

9A - Old Roman procurator's exercise regimen (7)
"exercise regimen" is our definition because we could insane trying to whittle down all the "old Romans" The list for exercise regimens is smaller and to fit this punny clue we want PILATES (Pontius Pilate? He was the judge, not the lawyer. Are we splitting hairs?)

10A - Beaten up, I had to finish application for French king's oldest son(7)
Beaten up is an anagrind for the following fodder "UP I HAD" finish application means take the last letter from application N, and our definition is a French king's son to give us DAUPHIN.

11A - Disallows bowling at Australian football (9)
"Disallows" is our definition, "Bowling" is a cricket term for an OVER and the word missing between Australia and football is RULES, for OVERRULES. I'm not confident that this is how we get "rules" in a cryptic sense and welcome anyone's further clarification.

12A - Very quickly astride (5)
A double definition clue? Charade? I'm not sure about "astride" but the answer came to me after I had the down letters and in particular the C in 8D to give me APACE. Pace and stride are synonyms, but apace and astride aren't. Cryptically could this mean to keep the A and alter the rest of the word? I'm not sure, so I asked the people at Cryptic Crossword Society Facebook group and they say it's called  "elision (dropping the space between consecutive words) is allowed although it is best to use it sparingly."  Well there we go. Always learning!

13A - One Dane is confused. It's a compound in all living cell (9)
"One Dane is" is fodder for anagram signpost confused. Unscramble to get ADENOSINE, and yes, I used anagram solver for that. I'm not a biochemist.

16A - Father's appreciation for some farinaceous food (5)
Farinaceous? I know farina is a polenta-like baby food. "Father's" becomes PA'S "appreciation is "TA" for PASTA which is indeed, farinaceous.

17A - Back in Borstal ceremonies reveal some brilliance (5)
My first inclination was BLAST as a synonym for "brilliance" and all those Bs but alas, not. This is a hidden reversal. If you don't know the French term you'd miss it...like I did, and I do know French. Just not this particular word. Hidden in there is ECLAT. If like me you used the thesaurus, you'd have been left out, too as eclat and brilliance do not show as synonyms for each other on thesaurus.com.

18A - Less feeling person is the most important (6,3)
Charades clue, "less feeling" is NUMB I'm not sure how we cryptically get the rest but I managed to solve with that beginning and the definition "most important" as NUMBER ONE.

21A - In the morning of union registration starts love affair (5)
Word salad! Yuck! what does it mean? "In the morning" is AM then "of union registration starts" tells us to use the first letters of the previous words OUR to give us a word for our definition "love affair" AMOUR.

23A - A long complicated procedure for right leg Mario broke (9)
"A long complicated procedure" is our definition for "right" they usually want us to use just the R, "leg Mario broke" where broke is an anagram signpost and is we scramble R + LEG MARIO  we get RIGMAROLE. One of my mother's favourite words.

28A - Strumpets returning with little hesitation, forming a distinct level (7)
No! Not another "strumpet, prostitute" sexist word clue! We had one last week from DH, too. Stop it with the judgemental sexist words. If it's taboo to use racist terms, then it's taboo to use sexist terms, too. Let's get through it: "Strumpets returning" gives a synonym for strumpets TARTS and we reverse it STRAT "with a little hesitation" is UM to give a word for a distinct level STRATUM. Let's hope we have no more HUSSIES, TARTS, STRUMPETS or COURTESANS for a while, eh?

26A - Aria-like recitatives in a South American city like that, son (7)
Sorry, I struggled with this one. I had all the down letters and filled in something that looked acceptable but i was a letter off. answer is ARIOSOS. I did get the RIO reference for South American City but couldn't cobble the rest.

27A - Two letters for English county (5)
An English county that's made up of two letter's sounds? ESSEX.

28A - American guy a highly skilled political leader (9)
Double definition here. the solution is a STATESMAN.


1D - New topic about a top Australian bead-like starch (7)
Bead like starch? I knew straight off it was Tapioca. But how to make that fir the clue to double check iIwas right? "New topic" means to scramble the letters in TOPIC "about A top Australian" or put the mixed letters of TOPIC around A,  then the top of Australian for the end. T-A-PIOC+A.

2D - Old French author makes oil spill in lake (7)
Definition is to find an "Old French author" whose name make OIL spill in a word for lake MERE...ok let's use a rarely used, archaic word for lake. MOLINERE

3D - Father! Gull-like bird with duck disturbed res in Lord's Prayer (11)
"The Lord's prayer" is our definition. "Father" PA "Gull-like bird" TERN and from here I got a wee bit lost. I googled "Lord's prayer latin" and got PATERNOSTER, but I'm not sure how "duck" gives us O. "rest disturbed" means scramble REST.

4D - Stand in the Red Sea seldom pays off (5)
Definition is "Stand". "in the Red Sea Seldom" is a hint there with the word in that a container clue is afoot. Nestled there in sEA SELdom is EASEL.

5D - Proem ends. Affected nourishing seed tissue (9)
Ok, doesn't "Proem ends" look very weird? And it's 9 letters. Scramble them to get ENDODERM.

7D - The French whelp to accept it enthusiastically (3,2)
"The French" LA "whelp" PUP gives LAP UP to mean "accept enthusiastically.

8D - Charles not up in American University? (9)
"American university" is our definition. "Charles" is the PRINCE but I'm not sure how "not up in" give ETON for PRINCETON.

12D - Confused them? A pieman making stimulant drug (11)
"Confused them" gives Meth which is a kind of AMPHETAMINE, "stimulant drug"

14D - Returning frozen friends, destroys a large proportion (9)
Honestly I got this as a guess for "destroys" and the wordplay was hard for me. Answer is DECIMATES. "Friends" can give MATES but...OH I see it now. "Frozen returning" ICED backwards. Whew! I tell you, writing these out helps me immensely.

15D - Amusing or otherwise, a complete fool (9)
I had many cross letters and I'm glad for it. The definition is "a complete fool" and the answer is IGNORAMUS which on further inspection is an anagram of "Amusing or" meaning "otherwise" is an anagram signpost. Not come across that one yet.

19D - After work, very generous amount for phalanger (7)
Phalanger? New word alert. And that's a name for a family of marsupials. I'm glad for that, and that I had several cross letters to get OPOSSUM because i'm not sure how "after work", very generous amount" gives the answer. I can see SUM but that's all.

20D - Ralph Waldo! Roy upset me senor! (7)
Well it was easy enough to get EMERSON especially since I'd had to read his stories in high school and growing up in Massachusetts, he was everywhere. "Me senor" is the anagram for his name and upset is the signpost.

22D - You and I have time for custom (5)
"You and I" US "have time" AGE for our definition "custom USAGE. I'd not have thought of that if Thesaurus.com didn't list usage as a synonym.

24D - Fruit in Managua varies in price (5)
"Fruit in" is a hint to a hidden word and that it's contained in "manaGUA VAries" and I guess "in price" is superfluous.

There we go. All done. Hey, did you notice all of the clues had total number of letter of either 5,7,9 or 11? I did. I don't think there's any significance, but it was neat. Would've been better is this puzzle was published on one of those dates. Will see you tomorrow with solution and clues for today's DP in The Age.

Beads Ahoy!

Got stuck into putting beads on the shawl and it's going well! I an struggling with getting them in the place I want as they're all going on a double crochet stitch. I don't think I mind too much if they go cattywumpus because then they'll be seen on both sides. I prefer a shawl or scarf that's reversible. I did not buy enough beads. I was shocked how quickly they go! I'll have to pop out and grab another bag of beads. Or two.

Here's some update shots:

The Age cryptic by LR 12/5/14

I will not get the bulk of this done today - so much on. I'll point out the easy ones first: 9A, 6D, 21D

The rest is annoyingly elusive! Just when I think I'm getting better, I get dropped back to Newbietown. I'm stopping for tonight. I've solved 13 clues and put in and erased about five. No matter how much I was 15A to be BANANA REPUBLIC it'll never work. Too many letters. Square pegs, round holes. Ego in the mix never solves a thing.

I'll get the paper in the morning and solve along with the key. I can zone in on a single clue and not see everything in the answers. No really! I can!! Here's a pic of what I've got so far, and don't click the picture if you don't want answers, yet. I'm not going to spoil anyone's "process" here. Not much.

Look forward to lots of red pen tomorrow. And don't think I've not tried to weasel in red pen for 19A! I'll share tomorrow once the solution is publicised. Feels like cheating otherwise. You tell me, is it wrong to publish answers before the solution is available?

13/5/14

Well nothing popped out as suddenly obvious after a night's sleep. This puzzle is full of the kinds of clues I'm weakest at solving, for me, this wasn't much fun. I'm sure those who can pull an adage or quip from their back pocket found this a delight. I'm looking at 5 question mark clues and 8 phrase clues and that's half a puzzle of pure annoyance. The other 13 clues were all right and I managed 11 of them.

I'll do my best to break this down:

8A - When we see "Cockney" it's a hint that we're losing some H's from words akin to the way a Cockney speaks. -H from "head" for EAD "Found in cut grass" cut grass is MOW, put EAD inside MOW for MEADOW, a synonym for field.

9A - "Scientist" is our definition, "body odour" is BO and I guess experiments is a signpost, telling us to mix the words in "Taints" to give BOTANIST.

11A - I should've thought back to all those episodes of Embarrassing Bodies I like to ghoulishly watch. "Yeast" is our definition. A synonym for "honest" is CANDID and "answer" is there to give us the ending A for CANDIDA. I didn't get this because I thought "answer" was a signpost for something. Words aren't just dropped in clues without reason. Thesaurus.com didn't give candid as a synonym or I'd have made the connection.

12A - "Sorer" is our definition. "Earring" is an anagram but not sure "infection" is a signpost. I think this is called an &lit clue but not I'm not sure. Anyway an "earring infection gets sorer" gets ANGRIER.

13A -  Charades, they used to be my worst clue but now I'm getting better at them, I'm seeking them out first. "Gai Finally" (apart from "Gai" being an unusual spelling...let's google that...Oh, it's about horses. I know as much about horses as I do cricket) take the last letter in Gai for I, synonym for "auctioned" is SOLD and put that outside the I for SOLID, a synonym for stable. So, nothing to do with horses after all Whew!

14A - What? Huh? "Start off the season" well which one? WI, SP, SU, FA?? AU? Move to next bit "with some jewellery" So many options. "Implanting" ???...go back to the start. "START OFF the season" Ok so remove the first letter of a season -W for INTER and add jewellery RING for INTERRING which isn't quite a direct synonym for "implanting." but I'm being pedantic, I suppose.

15A - A very Aussie clue and I didn't get the reference. I had the two words, but didn't know to put them together nor trust myself to do so.  "Prohibit" is BAN "Alcoholics Anonymous" is AA so I thought BANANA "accepting mid-morning" confused me but I think it was supposed to be trying to get the extra N into Banana as N is the middle letter in "morning". A synonym for "binges" is BENDERS. This gives the term BANANA BENDERS, a slang term for a Queenslander.

19A - Oh, I shake my fist at you!! I missed this anagram! I got myself convinced it's red pen, red something. Red herring is what it was! "Errors"is an anagrind for the fodder "label your" to give the colour ROYAL BLUE.

21A - "Trend" is a FAD and "French" (scroll down to French) is a common used bits-and-pieces indicator that could be a few options but the one we want will be reversed as we're told by retreating and our answer is a synonym of "dwindled" FADED.

23A - "Send bullets towards" is our defintion, "owl noise" is HOOT, I'm not sure how "during the day" gets us SAT and is "during" wanting something inside? I could guess the answer was SHOOT, but I'd put UP as the second word when if I'd been a bit grammatically aware I'd have used AT for "towards". SHOOT AT is the answer.

24A - This one gave me headache. I knew "post office" was likely PO and returns was telling me it was reversed to OP and I smugly though "octopus" as a synonym for seafood - but it wouldn't fit. "Lawyer" could be anything. Moving along to "every" is ALL and "post office returns" is OP. I guessed that SCALLOP was our likely "Seafood" but SC as the lawyer term was difficult to nail down.

25A - I'll take a stab at breaking this down, but i'm not confident I've gotten this right. "Gazed" is our definition, "crazy" is MAD "on pills" is EE for "Es" plural, slang for ecstasy, and "certainly" is YES to give MADE EYES.

26A - "Mass" is our definition, WEIGHT is the answer but i have no idea how "delay reported" fits to make the answer.

1D - Charades "Top students" means take the first letter of students S, "makes fun of" is to MOCK and definition is "art teachers' clothes" is our definition with a plural S for SMOCKS.

2D - I guessed this with cross letters. "No magical innovation" had me wondering about skeptics or atheists. and "Carbon plant", well if I googled carbon plant I got a list of American carbon plant facilities. When I added AU to the search, I got a list of carbon reducing plants to better our environment. I thought that was interesting. Also it was half an hour of wasted googling. "No magical" is anagram fodder is "innovated" the anagrind? "without carbon" is a hint to remove the letter C from the fodder to give letters for MAGNOLIA. Not on the list of preferred CO2 absorbing trees.

3D - Woodend? Not another Aussie clue!? No, it's not. It's a word with instruction included "wood end" or the last letter of Wood. Sneaky!  Definition is "Impersonated", "policeman" is COP "that is" is IE and the Woodend is D for COPIED.

4D - A common phrase clue. These are frustrating because you either get it or don't. I didn't. I had "To ban all noise" as a"Mime's aim" but what is wanted is a similar phrase to "putting it mildly" or TO SAY THE LEAST.

5D - Seeing the answer it's now obvious, but I was certain Annoyed was an anagrind and set about trying to find the anagram. It's not there. It's a charades clue. "Cop's ID" is a BADGE and the colour of a "stop light" is RED for a synonym of "annoyed" BADGERED

6D - I got this one in early. Synonym for "cycle" is BIKE "without energy" tells us to remove the -E "in one's" is IN I and synonym for swimsuit becomes BIKINI.

7D - I knew the ending was going to be AGE  after seeing the update of the compiler that the word "Newspaper" was missing from the clue.

@caffeinator doh 7-down has a typo! Not sure how that happened! Should read "Melbourne newspaper retention" :)
— LR (@LRxword) May 12, 2014

I still didn't get the "tale abridged" to mean Story -Y to give a synonym for "Retention" as STORAGE. I see abridged by definition means to reduce so maybe we're not spoonfed every instruction, but are to figure it all out ourselves. Aww...

10D - Question mark clue, you know it or you don't It's extremely literal/lateral. "How to start a sentence" grammatically? With a CAPITAL LETTER, and we're even given the hint with ACT being the capital of ...no wait. Canberra is the capital. ACT is its territory. ACT is just a collection of capital letters. Somewhat Spurious.

16D - Puzzled? Anagram? Something? What? I guessed "AT SEA" and just hopes the first would fall into place. Having missed 19A and not confident for 15A, I just left it.

17D - This one was hard! I immediately thought BAD OMENS. It fits, it works...doesn't work well with the clue but definition. It was wrong. I can see how "China" gives RED but not sure about "Vietnam and Turkey symbolically" gives FLAGS for definition of "Worrying signs" RED FLAGS"

18D - We are supposed to take the first letter P in "Penny" and add that to a synonym for "restart" RESUME for PRESUME which, I'm sorry, is not a good synonym for "Expect" Perhaps, maybe at a very long stretch, with tolerance and if in a good mood.

20D - This is a combination clue. Hidden word with deletion. The definition is "Antiquated" and the rest is "dyed holden stripped" When you strip you remove the outer layers, in this case the the two Ds from dyed and the H, N in Holden to give YE OLDE.

21D - This made me laugh with the visual it provided. It's a double definition clue. A word that is both "SOS device" and "trousers" are FLARES.

22D - I went far too military on this looking up line of command and titles, dabbled in Star Trek where Picard calls Riker "Number one" as his number two but we wanted something more Barney Fife. Wordplay is "Record" is an EP entering a "chore" or DUTY for DEPUTY.

That was the whole terrible mess. I say that because I'm disappointed with myself for not getting the easier questions. I get easily frustrated, easily distracted and always thinking these clues are harder than they really are.

I'll be late with Tuesday's puzzle as today is my daughter's 10th birthday and she's got a party tonight with her Guides unit and I'm their leader and cake wrangler. Wishing your day to be a full of fun as hers shall be. A look at my finished puzzle, doodles included.

South Bay Shawlette, two ways

I've been working these two shawls at the same time. It was by accident as I'd run out of yarn for one and just started a second one and the replacement yarn came faster than anticipated. They're both shades of blue, one more suede blue to navy the other royals to black.

The pattern is free via Lion brand and has a written pattern and a diagram. The pattern has a repeat of 7 Double crochet shells. In one shawl I've done this and the other shawl I've made them 5DC shells in order to conserve yarn. I got three extra rows by cutting back the amount of DC and didn't compromise on the overall design. When working with expensive yarn (Zauberball is $24 per 100g) it's good to find ways to make savings even if it's only a centimetre at a time. You'd be amazed how much yarn you save by removing extra chains or stitches. It won't work for all pattern, but on patterns like this it works well.

Here's the diagram:

I'm wanting to add beads to the last few rows. I've never added beads before and I'm hoping it'll be easy enough. I also hope I've not gotten my beads too small. I've watched a few video tutorials on youtube and think it will come out ok. I liked this video because she shows us how to add beads for slip stitch, single and double crochet stitches. I also liked this one which is in Japanese and English. It gives lots of inspiration. Don't worry, the cheesy music goes away and we're left watching the video in silence.

Here's a few pictures of the shawls so far. I hope they'll be stunning once they've been blocked. Just click any picture to see them in more detail.

I'll share the final product once they're done. I'm making these for my Aunt back in New England who I'll be staying with next month. Very exciting time! Looking forward to lots of fun with family and eating my weight in lobster!!

I'll try and get cracking on Monday's cryptic by LR and then I've got some planning to do for our Girl Guides meeting tomorrow. Hope you're Monday is kind.

Friday's Cryptic by DA in the Age 9/5/14

I know it's early on Sunday and I'm only getting around to Friday's puzzle but it does take me two days to solve a DA puzzle, even with help. This one was a themed puzzle where most of the answers for clues were based around the word play of 14A and 16A. Once we got those answers, the most of the rest was much easier. Looking at my paper you'll see I have a lot of red letters - I said these were hard! Let's take a look...

As you read through the clues you notice that many refer back to 14A and 16A. It would be best to start there. I went through the clues and couldn't solve 14A or 16A until I'd been trying to solve this puzzle for over 8 hours. With help. I gathered from the D.A. Trippers that there was a food theme playing here.

14A - Clergyman makes tense dork content...
16A - ...to get Genesis off church.

I mentioned yesterday that ellipses can mean there's a link between the clues to the answers. They shouldn't be ignored, they're intentional.

In 14A the definition is "Clergyman" so we're looking for a synonym and there are several options with 6 letters. On first read you may, like me, imagine an uptight nerd, a taut geek, a fraught weirdo. But no, and I went through many of those options. This turns out to be much more flat - "tense" refers to grammatical tense PAST and we want the "content" of dORk  (not a contented dork) to give PASTOR.

This follows on with 16A and to a synonym for Genesis. I got stuck on the word Origin and struggled to make that square peg fit but it wouldn't. I had a strong feeling "church" was CE but did not get SOUR as a synonym for "off" but the word SOURCE is what we want.

Now when we read the words PASTOR SOURCE together they don't make much sense. Say them aloud and also not much sense...unless you're like me and have a New England accent (Do Aussies count in this inflection? I'll have to ask one to say the phrase to me and hear) You might hear yourself say "Pasta sauce" ...Yes, the whole puzzle revolves around making that leap to realise many clues are types of pasta or sauces. Let's stick our forks in and give the rest a twirl...

1A - "Fool" is our definition but it's not the noun. A synonym for "fuming" is MAD and put that about "key" and we want the Florida keys version ISLE for M ISLE AD.

5A - This one gave me rage. Rage!"Sword beheading" had me taking the S off sword for WORD. And that's where nothing ever fit. Nothing. Am I looking for a sword? Am I looking for a "style?" No. "Sword" is the definition. We are to behead "but" and put in a synonym for  "style" and we get            C UT LASS

9A - I didn't get this until I had most of the cross letters and knowing the theme I guessed CARBONARA. "Ride horse westward" oh no, so many horse related words that could be put backward or "west" or a word that sits astride another? No I've got nothing. Two days later still have thought tumbleweeds. (Later) I asked a friend and he tells me "The answer was carbonara. Car/Arab< holding on."  I guess the B went west.

10A - "Direct" is our definition. I do not understand the wordplay as such. I can see how "druggie" could be REEFER and "extension initially" could mean E and we're told that's ignored so -E for REFER. I think that's how it goes.

11A - After no hits searching around for cobbler's terms I thought it may have to do with the phrase "A load of old cobblers" so I had to dig around for rhyming slang origins. The phrase comes from "Cobblers awls" which means "Balls" and that's what rhyming slang is for, swearing without really swearing. however I was going down the rabbit hole because it was simply wanting RUBBISH which is a politer synonym.

12A - A follow instruction or charade clue - "Public screens" is our definition. "Doctor's opening" means DR, "One" is I and "blood vessel" is VEIN put together it's DRIVE IN.

13A - Even with most of the cross letters this was not happening for me. Even with the solution I don't get it.  I'd have had to know Napster's definition was "pioneering peer-to-peer file sharing Internet service" and "player" meant music player.

14A - see above

16A - see above

19A - "Engineers" is an anagrind and we're told to "refurnish interior" so looking only at the letters inside of refurnish and resorting them we get INFUSER for "tea-maker"

23A - "Done thouroughly" I don't know how it's a cryptic clue, it's almost like a classic crossword clue. I got it eventually with cross letters ALL OVER.

25A - "Topless strumpets" had to bite my tongue. please don't be about prostitutes again, we've had that once this week. Is he wanting TRUMPETS -S? "followed by local mob" BAND? BRASS BAND? it's only 7 letters and one word. Getting the answer from the solution I'm guessing "Topless strumpets" are HUSSIES -H, and followed by A for a "local mob" although it's not put at the end but the beginning for AUSSIES. 

26A - "Brat" synonym is PEST and "second of four" is an instruction to take the second letter from "four" O to get PESTO. Now I agree that is a pasta sauce but now I'm lost why "Audience" is in there.

27A - I've struggled here. Plague is an anagrind signpost "cure led" is to be scrambled and placed into  the outsiders of "Paid" so we remove -AI and put PD around the fodder to get PRECLUDED, a synonym for "barred"

28A - I guess I don't know enough about how Pastors are paid. I don't know why "quoted" is there as we're not looking for a homophone of "Pastor" or "Pasta". The answer is PENSION.

29A - The first clue I solved as it was an obvious anagram. Cooks is our anagrind and "eased in" is the fodder to make ANISEED, a liquorice flavouring.

1D - I got this in a round-about lucky way. I had not solved 14A-16A and did not know the theme. I figured "Computer" was going to be one of the 3-letter ones (IBM, MAC even toyed with NEC). Crashed looked like an anagrind. I saw "on air" twice and thought MARCONI? The aeronautics Engineering company? Now I know not everyone would've made that leap. I lived near a Marconi office in Scotland. I heard the name a lot growing up. A second look got me MAC + "on air" rejigged for MACARONI, a type of pasta that was hinting to 14A.

2D - I wrote in and erased this a few times. I didn't believe the answer would have UP in it if the clue had up as well. Well I was wrong. I think this clue needed a better edit and removed "up" and kept north as having both was confusing. "Clean" is our definition, "low bushes" are SCRUB and UP was just sitting there as a given.

3D -  More rhyming slang? Eh, not really. "Vain one" is our definition and I don't really know how we get to that from the clue. I got this by definition only and can't see how it's worked. At a guess it could be "'E got 'ist" like a Cockney say saying He Got heist? Iced? I dunno.

4D - I HAVE NO IDEA!! Seriously, what?? "She adored blending pasta sauce" I thought I was looking for a person and couldn't find anyone who fit. but DEAD HORSE??? No fricken idea. ARG! Wait - there it is. FFS. Blending is an anagrind for "She adored" and gives us DEAD HORSE. I mean...it's painful. It's obvious and I didn't see it, and that's an ice pick in the eye, painful.

5D - Easier to spot this one. "Silverbeet" is the definitions and a synonym of "burnt" is CHARRED but how "in reception" is instruction to get me to remove the extra R for CHARD, I don't know. I know Chard and Silverbeet are related because I dislike both, they taste like dirt.

6D - No idea, again. Not even a sneaky anagram hiding there. I had TEN BITS in there for a while as a shilling is 10¢ but how we get TURNIPS with "pasta sauce" I don't know and it sounds about as appealing as silverbeet or chard.

7D - I got this via hints in DA Trippers where "Alien" wanted the terrible 80's muppet alien ALF and "makeover" is a REDO to give a "pasta sauce" ALFREDO.

8D - "Jump" pasta sauce? What? Huh? SPRING is a (far down the list) synonym for jump but I don't get the clue here.

14D - Vocal means something is said and is likely a homophone. I can assume "formal" may mean "prime" and mover might be "venture" and together they kind of sorta maybe sound like PRIMAVERA which is a "pasta" meal.

15D - I'm not sure if Lobbied or Against is the anagrind but "Dude's car" is the fodder for CRUSADED.

17D I didn't get this at all.. I had "Boy" in the last three letters for a long while then tried Lad. There's a cricket thing in there and I'm clueless about cricket, I don't see how Stallone fits. SLY is mixed in the middle of the clue surrounded by two ONs unless that's the "matching sides" hint.

18A - This one was misleading (misdirecting) as Fiddle is often an anagrind but here it's the fodder....and the anagrind? We have to scramble a fiddle synonym VIOLA but I got stuck trying to work RAG for "tabloid" into this and make some kind of RAGU link. I'm not sure how the surrounding letters R and I work in the clue but the answer was RAVIOLI. and there are ellipses...

20A - but they don't link per se to ravioli except it's another pasta. I couldn't work out what the clue was trying to get me to do. I had a few cross letters and made a guess. I also erased it a few times and put it back in.

21D - I can only shrug - sorry. "Fusili sauce" "Donegal Wingers" Irish rugby? Not one SPINDLE in the lot. Perplexed.

22D - This one makes me growl. "Sheepdog" a compound word. Sheep and dog or for the clue a RAM and a PUP for RAMP UP or "increase"

24D - Sorry...no idea. I know it's in pencil but no, I honestly didn't get that clue either. should be red red RED!

There it was. Until next week, DA.

It's Mother's Day and I intend to let my kids annoy me with all kinds of sloppy affections and demands to bake cakes. I'll be washing umpteen loads of dishes as a result. Oh, I do sound grumpy...

I'll share some hooky work I've been getting along with and I bought beads to bedazzle the shawls. It'll be my first attempt at beading and I'm quite excited!

Cryptic Thurs 8/5/14

I spent a few hours yesterday in the chair at the hair salon getting my colour done - a twice a year treat. While there I had my two cryptics from Thursday and Friday's DA to while the time away. I don't like the typical magazines you find in waiting rooms. There's only so much celebrity gossip one can take before becoming bitter at the state of journalism and what passes for "news". That said both stylists working there were curious and I gave a few tips on how to solve the puzzles. Again someone who says "I've never understood those crosswords."  Oh where are the mentors!? I'm trying to address that shortfall. Cryptic crosswords should be for everyone, not the persistent, elitist few. Ok, they're not elitist, that's my jealousy talking.

Thursday:

I like to make notes and scribble over the page and break down the clues so they make sense. I draw a rectangle around what I think is the definition, a line under signposts and wiggling line under anagrams. I say "Signpost" because it's the language used by the compilers of crosswords. They're also known as anagrinds. Signposts are hint words to tell you something needs to be done. Like in 1A, here the word wobbly is a hint that something is off balance. 17A uses a partial anagram and says "nib" is broken. 23A "get its aims" looks weird and we are told to correct that. 1D is rather direct with Demolish "OK. Yes use taper" It helps when reading a clue if there are combinations of words that add up to the number of letters in the clue. The letters and words in the anagram are called the fodder. Here's an explanation of anagrinds, fodder and such from the compiler Dean Mayer known as Anax and he writes for The Guardian.

There are lists of common signposts available online and when starting out it's valuable to have a list around to scan when you're reading a clue that otherwise looks like a word salad, it could be giving direction to unscramble an anagram.

1A - "Ok, no peeping knee" is a weird mix of words and turns out to be an anagram hinted by wobbly and means to persist.

8A - I don't quite get the phrasing "following each compass point" but I settled on EAST and TERN for the "seabird" but only after I'd had the cross letters.

9A - I dabbles with scrambling "is sore" "Espania" and once I had a few down clues just grabbed a list of "Italian Composers" and scanned until one fit.

11A - "Measures" is the definition. "Adjoining grounds" gives YARDS and a "check mark" is a TICK.

12A - Don't know, no idea, clueless to whole thing.

14A - Moribund, what's that mean? Oh, what a dreary word. What does that have to do with our definition "Generations too young"? Nothing. I've just realised this is a container clue. I answered purely from the definition. But look there it is: moribUND ERA GEnerations. Sneaky. In a served a container signpost.

15A - A fun clue once I understood it, very clever. Going through the list of "root vegetables" that an "I" in them to remove and put a "You/U" in it's place. You can see I tried Radish first and quickly found Turnip became TURN UP, for "Arrive"

17A - I guessed quickly "Seaman" was our definition and went through a list of naval titles. Rabbit hole task. The clue tells us clearly what it wants. "Not happy" SAD about, broken "nib" About here is telling us to put the word SAD on either end of NIB which is to be scrambled to give us the name of a seaman SINBAD.

19A - I didn't get this. I knew CO had to be reversed but I couldn't figure out enough to confident to write anything in.

22A - Here we have to wonder if "Before" or "Reversed" is the definition. Since both are signposts for word placement in clues we have to consider the middle "A mount" and this instance it refers to a mountain. There's not many four letter mountains and fewer that spell a word when put backwards. ETNA is "reversed" to give ANTE a prefix for before.

23A - "Gets its aims" is a weird phrase - why would aims be plural? correct hints to an anagram. "Describe as disgraceful" is our definition for STIGMATISE.

25A - This one is a double definition. We SUBJECT someone to a stimulus and we refer to the one being stimulated as a SUBJECT.

27A - I could guess the ending might be EST but didn't want to write that in. I can also see "returN VIA" as a partial reversed container (Not sure that's a thing or a coincidence) but I did not get this clue.

1D - Demolish "OK. Yes, use taper" is an anagram KEEP YOUR SEATS for "don't get up"

2D - "Then 50%" means take half of then, EN and "sued" about or around the "right" or R for ENSURED for "guaranteed"

3D - I didn't first recognise struggles as an anagram signpost because the surface looked like a legit clue. "Pervades or" is fodder and when unscrambled gives OVERSPREAD as "cover the surface" but I'm not entirely happy the definition meets the solution.

4D - I understood that KINGS was to embrace something but couldn't think of anything to fill the space. I didn't trust the direction to use the last extremes of "nation" , extremes beaming the first and last of the indicated word would give the NN, but I'd never heard of KENNINGS to mean "Figurative phrases" I'd lived in Scotland and knew Ken to mean understand. I left it.

5D - An ellipses clue can mean the first and second clue (6D) are a linked phrase. I have no idea what the compiler, NS (Nancy Sibtain) was trying to get from us. I can see how "I've discovered" can mean EUREKA but "Stockade" being there is elusive.

6D - Um...clueless. So idea what six tests has to do with INST or what INST even means or how it relates to EUREKA.

7D - I had the G from 1A and took a gamble that"Hark" would be LISTEN to give GLISTEN for "Sparkle" I guess LIST could be for "note" but that leaves GEN which I don't see fitting.

10D - ???...nope. I've got nothing, even with the solution INDEPENDENTLY.

13D - "All too numb" is the fodder to move in this anagram clue. Definition is "uncompromising position" OUT ON A LIMB.

16D - I understood there was a partial anagram involved with "green" needing scrambled but couldn't understand the first part of the word. "business" is to be CO "not opener" means to use the first letter of not N for CONGENER, which means of the same kind.

18D - This one you have to follow the directions. Nobly accepts "thanks" or TA to mean "Especially" NO TA BLY.

20D - I needed the cross letters to get this and only then via the definition "is Asian". I can see CHIN is "part of the face" and "see" needs adjustment to give CHINESE.

21D - A double definition clue. A pain in your side and a needle gives STITCH. Too clever for me.

24D - "However" YET "one" I gives "Himalayan resident" YETI. "Snow cone?"


You know, it takes me several hours/days to solve the puzzle and then a few hours to write them all up. I hope someone will get some help and inspiration for this effort! For now, for purely selfish reasons, I'll keep going. I'm still a beginner myself and the going over the solutions helps me figure the clues out. Even while I'm typing "I don't know!" sometimes the answer comes. It's always liberating to get the answer.

I have finished the Friday DA but will write that up in the morning. It was hellish (for me) and I really needed the help of the amazing people over at The DA Trippers to get me through.

Russian Crochet Shawlette

I've cracked the Russian Shawlette. It's not so bad once I figured out how to get started. The beginning, which I mentioned before, is the same start for a granny square. Start at the green circle and first round for a standard Granny Square (pattern uses English terms but it's good to know both). The pattern can be manipulated in the shell part into many styles and keeping the granny  border and spine. I'm going to try this with Paton's Fluffy Meringue blanket pattern. I've never managed to figure out how to make that as a blanket, but I can make it a triangle - I don't know why, I just roll with it. I think those picot topped shells would look nice. I'll give it a go with some nicer yarn. That's my test yarn, about 50grams left from a yarn that felted severely, so I don't trust it. I pull that out to try patterns. It's been worked and frogged so many times it's probably not going to pull this time. I'll work it until it's done and then give this to my daughter for her dolls. I have some Zauberball 100 that would work very well with this pattern.

I do like how the shells make the pattern have a nice wave shape and it doesn't look like rows. I'm going to have fun playing with this. Here's the diagram again, I'd gotten it from Pinterest.

I'm working this as (American terms):

• The dot is a chain
• The small T is a single crochet (I avoid Half-double crochets if I can)
• solid line is a Double Crochet (DC)
• on row 3 where you see \''''/ as a base for the shell, I've made those Treble crochets. Treble crochet, chain 4 Treble crochet into the same space. You could do them as DC and save some yarn inches.
• All 3DC, ch1, 3DC I've chained 2 instead. I'm using a bulky yarn and it worked better. With the lace weight yarn I might not have to.

Let me know if you give this pattern a try. I'd also love to know what modifications others could come up with. Happy Hooking!

May 7th, 2014 The Age Cryptic by DH

Today's puzzle at first glance filled me with dread. It had a lot of phrases as clues. I don't often get phrases. Sometimes they're very British centric. Sometimes they're just really old and out of common usage. Sometimes they're just dumb and make no sense. Or make tenuous, sorta kinda sense of you look at them squinted and from the left angles.

I'm not good with them. I work around them and then try when every other clue has dried up. This time I was being a bit of a ninny. I looked it over last night and thought "UGH! yuck, can't...too hard." and went to sleep. This morning I pulled it out and had a wrangle. I got about two thirds done. My first try is in black, correct answers and missed clues I got from the answer key in today's paper are in red.

I liked 23A, 2D and 29A even though I didn't get it. Now, don't go thinking I'm some hot shot who does these puzzles in pen, either - they're erasable inks!

1A - I didn't get this until I had a few cross letters and then put the wee bars to show me how many letters per word. "Plucky clique" is a GAME SET and a "lighter end" is a MATCH. the extra three letter word is AND for the common tennis phrase for "court contest".

9A - "none disturbed" tells us to scramble the letters in none and add another word for "jewellery" or BLING for definition "dignifying" ENNOBLING.

10A - This one stumped me for ages (get it "stumped" "Tree"). I had the UP part but kept thinking Ash? Elm? Oak? Eventually running through all the three letter trees and never considering GUM. Only lived around gum forests for the past five years...duh. GUM UP "to cause a jam".

11A - Definition is "Teacher" and cooked is an anagram signpost. Scramble the words in "trout" for TUTOR.

12A - "Permit one" got me LET IT - then I faltered. Voyage? "to go unchecked"? I tossed around Let it slip, Let it by, Let it go. Looking now I see "Voyage" was TRIP. The I was the "one" LET IT RIP. Which to me, is not going unchecked, it means let it go with enthusiasm. Setting a kite into the air, racing RC cars, trying out a new bit of tech for the first time. See what I mean about the phrases not marrying up all the time?

14A - I did not get all of this clue! "Rod's tension" makes no sense to me even after getting the answer. "Rod's" isn't an anagram, it's not about fishing and I don't know what Rod I'd look up for a name hint. I eyeballed adjusted as an anagram signpost for the odd phrase "elk cub" to give me BUCKLE. So I had the second word for all of the puzzle. Answer is TURN BUCKLE. Which is one of these doohickeys. And yes they are used to "adjust tension rods" But really am I being pernickety about this being an icky clue?

16A - "Big Ring Jockey" Well you could say a "big ring" is a HOOP but what does that have to with a Jockey? No idea. I should've just ignored it and done hoop.

18A - "Sinful is WICKED but we only want mostly of that word to give us WICK, a "candle feeder"

20A - Ok, I get how "Anaesthetics" gets NUMB but that's it. The definition "political schemer" doesn't mean NUMBERS MAN to me. Actuary yes. Accountant yes. Bookie yes.

23A - I did like this clue! Follow directions - "Half of them" EM "crazy about" MENTAL  cheese - EMMENTAL!

25A - "Small guy" oh this is not PC, MIDGET "drops his last" -T gives MIDGE for fly. Terrible!! Shocking!!

27A - Another follow directions type clue. "Poland's Capital" P (not Warsaw) "put down" LAID for "some woven cloth"

28A - This one sent me in many circles. Walks about could be AMBLES and pram is short for Perambulate but that's too many letters. I had the down letters for the first and last S and thought Scrambles would work. Wrong! It was STROLLERS the American word for pram that also means to walk around.

29A - Ugh a phrase! "Negative rebound" gives NO SPRING "cowardly" gives CHICKEN for phrase relating to old people NO SPRING CHICKEN. I'm sure the pensioner solvers just loved that.

1D - Ugh a phrase! This isn't something you can break down, you either get the eureka moment or you don't. I didn't, even with most of the cross letters. GOES TO TOWN.

2D - I liked this, a more comfortable double definition clue. "Keep watch over a lizard" gives us MONITOR.

3D - "Rib-tubes" has eight letters and a hyphen just like out answer should so I put this into the anagram solver (Yes I'm lazy!) and we get SUB-TRIBE which works for "minor clan"

4D - I thought of the flower Sweet William then noticed the word displays and wondered if the answer was displayed in the clue. It is, TWILL is a woven cloth. Two woven cloth clues in one puzzle?

5D - "Funny thing" is a hint to scramble the word thing and find another word for "cosh" to get NIGHT CLUB for "cabaret"

6D - I did not get this and getting the solution hasn't helped. I can see how MIGHTY is a synonym for "powerful" but that's about it. I'm a Yankee and you can see I was playing with Mayflower and other Americana to get the answer but this one is elusive.

7D - I had to google Mexican ports and find ones with a T and chose incorrectly with Tijuana. I'd never heard of TAMPICO. If I'd not been lazy (I am lazy I admit) I'd have seen "Stamp head off" for TAMP "one" I and "company" CO.

8D - This is a double definition type clue, a dance that shares the same name as a beer ingredient HOPS

13D - I got the SEASON part right away but didn't understand anything hinting towards OPEN. Did not help I had the "Duck season! Rabbit season" skit running through my head.

15D - I saw hooker and thought rugby clue? Crochet clue (as if)? prostitute clue? I took a gamble that "US art once" had the same number of letters as the solution and ran it through the anagram solver to get the answer COURTESAN. So...prostitute clue. Midgets and prostitutes. Oh dear.

17D - I had no idea what this clue was doing or what it wanted me to do. You can see from my scribbles I knew Rainier was of Monaco but how that mixed with retail chain. I can see they wanted to get me to answer ALDI for the chain and GRIM for forbidding. Lack of knowledge that Monaco is known as the House of GRIMALDI.

19D - I guessed "direction finder" was the definition and answered COMPASS which was correct.

21D - "Wednesday features" is the definition but I did not understand "double the energy" unless it was telling me to have two EEs. I got hung up on "hump day" and couldn't be bothered thinking harder and I had no cross letters.

22D - A question mark clue means little help and just figure it out. Oh a little help with "Twist for " for BEND and a "drunken spree" is a BENDER.

24D - I don't know! Wally Richards, google tells me, is an organic gardener. An "emotional display" I went through lots of options: tantrum, hysterics, wail, cries, fit. How the answer is LYRIC I have no idea! Oh...wait. It's a container clue! There it is nestled in walLY RIChards!! I never twigged display was used again to mean the answer was displayed.  I feel I must slap something. The surface of the clue doesn't hint to anything musical so it's not a good clue.

26D - "Width" is our definition small is a hint to take the S and a "cooking utensil" is a PAN for SPAN.

Not the best puzzle. I've had DH puzzles that were better than this. Tomorrow is DA day.