Oh no!, more line drawing, shades of Inquisitor 1275 🙁 let’s hope it’s less unclear this time.
First impressions: the grid’s asymmetrical; looking through the clues I see that there’s only one 12-letter entry and it must go across the top row. This gave me an early start to filling the grid as the answer to the 12-letter entry just leapt out at me. Knowing that there were four clashing cells made some of the grid resolution a little tricky but they helped to identify that the question and answer were symmetrical.
So the question worked out as AM I FIRMLY TIED and the answer is I’M A FRAYED KNOT which is a mistranscribed version of I’M AFRAID NOT. 
At this point I found the instructions to be a tad confusing. I’m guessing that we’re expected to draw a granny knot rather than a reef knot since our answer implies that it’s not firmly tied. Two answers (SCOLIA and SCORIA) seemed to be interchangeable and I could see that this meant that row 11 gave us a choice of R OVER L R OVER L or R OVER L L OVER R the former being a granny knot.
The last part was to draw two coloured lines (or shade 22 cells) to indicate the knot, which I hope I’ve managed to do successfully though I suspect I haven’t 🙁 I just didn’t understand “Charybdis recommends following these instructions for real”in the preamble.
Apologies for the late posting and the lack of colouring – let’s blame Ronnie O’Sullivan but at the same time congratulate him on his remarkable achievement.
| Grid ref |
Direction |
Clue |
Length |
Entry |
Wordplay |
| c4 | d | Shortly to put on costume for speech |
7 | ADDRESS | ADd put on; shortly)+DRESS (costume) |
| h4 | a | Mate in one move after Master’s setback |
5 | AMIGO | MA (rev: setback)+I (one)+GO (move) |
| a10 | a | He’s like tax men | 8 | ASSESSOR | &lit. AS (like)+SESS (tax)+OR (men) |
| k9 | d | A bit dull, isn’t he? | 5 | BORER | (double def) |
| j9 | d | He learns Buddhism as a nipper |
5 | CHELA | (double def) |
| a1 | d | A letter to express satisfaction turned up in Twitter |
7 | CHIRRUP | CHI (a letter)+PURR (express satisfaction; rev: turned up) |
| a1 | a | Misunderstanding the chicken’s motivation? |
12 | CROSS-PURPOSE | Why did the chicken cross the road? |
| d6 | d | Chair’s lowered initially for partner at table |
4 | EAST | SEAT (initial letter S moved (lowered)) |
| d10 | d | G Player’s compatriot? They won’t be easily caught |
4 | EELS | Gary Player‘s fellow countryman E[rnie] ELS |
| l1 | d | Untidy, not my covering letter | 3 | ESS | [m]ESS (untidy; without M[y]) |
| g4 | d | Fidgety, finicky, not completely heartless |
4 | FIKY | FI[nic]KY |
| i12 | a | Struggle involved boxing Clay | 4 | GLEI | strugGLE Involved (hidden: boxing) |
| a2 | a | It’s within this clue | 4 | HINT | witHIN This (hidden: cryptically defined) |
| b12 | a | Skinned entire creature bar tail for this painter |
7 | HOLBEIN | [w]HOL[e] (entire; skinned)+BEIN[g] (creature; bar tail) |
| g5 | a | Little devil almost passed through hole – it’s winged |
6 | IMPROV | IMP (little devil)+ROV[e] (passed through (past tense of REEVE); almost) |
| c3 | a | Somehow I rake around right shrub |
6 | KERRIA | I+RAKE+R[ight] (anag: around) |
| i2 | a | Goes round once more by mistake (short cut) |
4 | LAPS | LAPS[e] (mistake; cut short) |
| h6 | a | You get a great deal at bingo | 5 | LOTTO | LOT (great deal)+TO (at) |
| f13 | a | Yes, away from eyes, this cosmetic would be wrongly used as a cream |
7 | MASCARA | E[yes] (minus YES) extracted from AS A CREAM (anag: wrongly) – another of those “AZED” clues that I despise 🙁 |
| d4 | a | A small amount of matches in case of fire initially being put out |
4 | MIFF | M[atches]+IF (in case of)+F[ire] (initially) – I don’t see the need for “being put out” |
| f8 | d | Spy on master keeping Sabbath – he’s religious |
6 | MOSLEM | S(abbath) inside MOLE (spy)+M(aster) |
| h6 | d | We’ll leave broken answerphone after heading off for the waste recyclers |
8 | NEPHRONS | [a]NS[we]RPHONE (heading off; minus WE; anag: broken) |
| i6 | d | Discloses there’s nothing to write with? |
5 | OPENS | O (zero)+PENS – if you have zero pens, you have nothing to write with |
| h11 | a | No more love poetry going only to the heart |
4 | OVER | O (love)+VER[se] (poetry; going only as far as the heart of the word) |
| f1 | d | Milton’s ideal for every festival except start of Easter |
6 | PERFET | PER (for every)+FET[e] (except start of E[aster]) |
| i1 | d | Rounded fruit same at bottom as at top |
5 | PLUMP | PLUM+P (same as the starting letter) |
| i7 | a | Kitty taking back drink, last of slops |
4 | PUSS | SUP (drink; rev: taking back)+[slop]S |
| c7 | a | Lustful Marc taking top off | 5 | RANDY | [b]RANDY (marc brandy; minus first letter) |
| h1 | d | Marines grabbing attention to get more weaponry |
5 | REARM | EAR (attention) inside RM (Royal Marines) |
| a5 | a | Fault in photo – stain again around base? |
6 | RED-EYE | E (base) inside REDYE (stain again) |
| a4 | a | Arrival’s regularly seen in the valley |
3 | RIA | [a]R[r]I[v]A[l] (regularly) |
| b1 | d | The Unfinished – it inspired playing in another musician |
9 | RIPENIST | IT INSPIRE[d] (unfinished; anag: playing) |
| a11 | a | Somewhat controversial vagrant |
5 | ROVER | contROV ERsial (hidden: somewhat) |
| l8 | d | Drunken social wassails | 6 | SCOLIA | SOCIAL (anag: drunken) |
| g8 | d | Molten cast iron except for last bits, the dross |
6 | SCORIA | CAS[t] IRO[n] (except for last bits; anag: molten) |
| i10 | a | When house is in such a state go away |
4 | SHOO | HO(use) inside SO (in such a state) |
| b10 | d | Part of London Calling? | 4 | SOHO | SOHO (a form of call[ing]) |
| a13 | a | Duck and pigs by middle of field |
5 | SOWSE | SOWS (pigs)+[fi]E[ld] (middle of) |
| g8 | a | Passed water in ship, they’re indicated by knots |
6 | SPEEDS | PEED (passed water: urinated) inside SS (ship) |
| k1 | d | Several pegs for guzzler seen in boozers |
7 | SPIGOTS | PIG (guzzler) insides SOTS (boozers) |
| e1 | d | E.g. controlling greenfly in flowery cluster at top of garden |
8 | SPRAYING | SPRAY (flowery cluster)+IN+G[arden] (top of) |
| d1 | d | Stop the race | 4 | STEM | (double def) |
| d9 | a | More than one conservative causing offence |
4 | TWOC | TWO (more than one)+C(onservative) |
| a6 | a | Nude splashed about with energy in waves |
5 | UNDEE | NUDE (anag: splashing about)+E(nergy) |
| g1 | d | Local one in nameless college | 3 | UNI | UN (one; dialect: local)+I[n] (nameless) |
| a8 | d | Poisonous plants, most uncommon I found in America |
6 | URARIS | RAR[e] (most)+I inside US (America) |
| a8 | a | Exploits deceptions after tip off | 4 | USES | [r]USES (deceptions; tip off) |
| j3 | d | A good thing, very true, I seethed |
6 | VIRTUE | V(ery)+TRUE+I (anag: seethed) |
| c11 | d | Cry of pain and high volume oath |
3 | VOW | V(olume)+OW (cry of pain) |
As well as Ronnie, I would also like to congratulate Charybdis on a terrific puzzle, one of the best for a while for me. I thought that the instructions were clear to be honest and didn’t see how it could be other than a granny knot.
Ken – I agree with much of what you came up with … but not quite all.
Yes, it’s a granny, not a reef (very nice touch with the initial SCOLIA/SCORIA ambiguity giving the two possible instructions) – I did eventually tie the two knots in order to see which one I could fairly easily pull apart. And my shading of the cells was pretty close to yours, but it shouldn’t really go through h3 & h7 (nor indeed intrude into e3 & e7 – but let’s not quibble). And it should include c4 (the start of the question) and j6 (the end of the response) – put that down to your spending time with Ronnie “the rocket”.
Where we differ is the resolution of the clashes. Since e4 & h4 are part of your red piece of string (the question), I feel they should be resolved to I (not A) and R, as in the question; and similarly, e6 & h6 are blue (response) so should be E and N (not L).
All in all, a really enjoyable puzzle, with enough quite easy clues to get on with doing the jigsaw, but marred slightly by the vagueness in the endgame.
PS Was anyone else initially held up by swapping ASSESSOR & NEPHRONS, since there was no 5-letter word starting with N, not realising that the N was one of the clashes?
I have the same resolution of clashes as HolyGhost by the way.
I followed a diagram that implied blue over red for e4 and h4, yielding A (instead of I) and A (instead of R) in those two squares respectively, and red over blue for e6 and h6, yielding I (instead of E) and L (instead of N)in those two cases. I’m no boy scout and didn’t “follow the instructions for real” with two pieces of coloured string, so maybe what I was following were the instructions for a L over R, L over R granny knot ?
Whatever, this was good fun and thanks to Charybdis and Kenmac.
I had the same as Rob H #4. I think either solution should be OK as the knot is a granny either way.
Good puzzle though!
Holy Ghost @ 2:
I meant to mention in the blog that in order to “draw” the string, I actually copied the picture from the Wikipedia article and overlaid it on my Excel grid. I realised that it didn’t fully extend to cover the letters. Finishing the grid yesterday I was recovering from sedation for a surgical procedure so I wasn’t function at 100% 🙁
Ken — my main point wasn’t your shading but the resolution of clashes.
Whichever way one illustrates the granny, the shading of the clashing cells should determine which letters to retain (& which to discard).
Hope you’re now better.
Beautiful, beautiful Charybdis. Was flummoxed for a bit with the asymmetrical grid and yes, when I saw that a line drawing was necessary, my hackles were up re 1275! But this was ‘do-able’. Thanks Kenmac and the Girl Guides movement!
Very enjoyable. I usually struggle with these jigsaw types but this fell quickly. I did have a bit of a brain failure around the end game, but worth persevering.
Thanks.
I agree with Holy Ghost @7 – there are 2 ways to get a granny knot R over L – starting top right giving clash resolutions as A & A (top), I & L (bottom); or starting bottom right resolving clashes in reverse ie R & I (top), E & N (bottom).
If I remember my boy scout days well enough (though it has been more then 30 yrs) the conventional way to show knot diagrams is to have the standing ends at the bottom & to work with the free ends above – ie starting bottom right here.
However, the other way (starting top right) follows the direction of the question & its response, which seems neater to me.
Isn’t the point about “following instructions for real” that the letters of “real” are the ones to enter for the clashes, as you’ve done in your drawing and blog, for which many thanks?
NormaLinFrance@11
I did think that was the most likely meaning of “for real” but rejected it as it would yield blue over red at e4, red over blue at e6, blue over red at h4 and red over blue at h6. i.e. no type of knot at all. But maybe that is what Charybdis intended ?
We enjoyed solving this one but we are afraid that we weren’t sure what to do at the end! Thank goodness for 225 and kenmac. Thankfully, we also solved the 12 letter answer fairly easily.
At one point we thought that Charybdis meant us to actually ‘tie the knot’ to work out what to do but NormanLinFrance has the answer we feel. However, that does seem to go against the instructions in row 11.
Anyway, as we said, we enjoyed the solve!
Probably too late for anyone to see this, but thanks for the blog and comments – especially the enthusiastic ones 🙂
The reason for advising solvers to tie a ‘R over L, R over L’ granny knot for real is that solvers will actually have the correct knot in their hands and can check what goes over and what goes under. The result is unambiguous and unaltered by turning the knot over or around since [unlike a reef knot] it is completely rotationally symmetrical – and differently so from a ‘L over R, L over R’ granny knot.
I wonder if solvers having difficulty with the last step actually got a bit of string and tried it out?
NormaLinFrance@11: It’s unfortunate that the wrong clashes can spell REAL – not a deliberate red herring and not foreseen as one. Perhaps instead I should have had a message from extra letters spelling out SOLVITUR AMBULANDO [Chambers: “the problem is solved by practical experiment, by actual performance.”]
charybdis@14
Not deliberate, eh? A likely story 🙂
🙂