Through the flavor text, solvers can infer that these are cryptic clues torn in half. For each combined clue, the sum of both numbers from each half matches one of the numbers in the grid. The answers to the clues must then be placed into the grid, starting from the matching numbers and following the direction, turning whenever going into a corner (this placement method is clued in the flavor text).
Most of the clues work fine (even if the surface meaning is lost in the process). However, as indicated in the flavor text, some halves needed more effort to be put together. The key aha is that some half-clues needed to be woven together, alternating the words in order to form the clue (hence the title). For example, “Fruit’s fourth bed” and “Endless month” are woven to form “Fruit’s endless fourth month bed.” Below is the table of full clues and the wordplays in traversal order, starting from top of the grid.
Note: * means anagram, < means reversal. Highlighted rows means woven clues.
| #1 | #2 | Sum | Answer | Wordplay | Full Clue |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 14 | 29 | 43 | AISLES | Homophone of "isles" | Paths inside store keys loudly |
| 7 | 30 | 37 | TSETSE | EST(a)TES* | Strange estates bar a fly from Africa |
| 19 | 13 | 32 | NAGGED | (AND EGG)* | Bothered from and egg confused |
| 21 | 5 | 26 | ELOPES | (SE+POLE)< | Runs off southeast European retreating |
| 30 | 19 | 49 | APRICOT | APRI(l)+COT | Fruit's endless fourth month bed |
| 29 | 2 | 31 | ETAS | ET(A(ddresses))S | Foreign letters' addresses originally penned by aliens |
| 13 | 3 | 16 | DEEPEN | DEE+PEN | Intensify confine beyond Aberdeen river |
| 4 | 21 | 25 | GASES | (gala)GA SES(sion) | Airlike substances hidden in Galaga session |
| 1 | 11 | 12 | FLAGSHIP | FLAGS+HIP | Main vessel's pennants cool, slangily |
| 15 | 20 | 35 | SONAR | SON+AR | Child argon makes detection system |
| 3 | 15 | 18 | ARIEL | (fe)AR I EL(uded) | Mermaid's fear I eluded constituents |
| 12 | 17 | 29 | RUPEE | RU(PE(el))E | Half of peel splitting regret Indian currency |
| 28 | 22 | 50 | SPANIEL | SP(A(dvice)+N)IEL | Spiel containing advice leader and knight's dog |
| 26 | 18 | 44 | LETHAL | (bul)LET HAL(lway) | Deadly bullet hallway section |
| 10 | 4 | 14 | TAROT | Homophone of "tear roe" | Card deck's cut eggs, say |
| 5 | 28 | 33 | PREPARES | REP. in PEARS* | Cooks reputation shortening breaking into free pears |
| 20 | 14 | 34 | DEACONS | DE(A(ncient)+CO)NS | Hollows surrounding first ancient company's church positions |
| 27 | 12 | 39 | FINESSE | F+(S in SEINE*) | Initially face south through broken Seine bridge maneuver |
| 24 | 6 | 30 | EROSION | (IS ON ORE)* | Process in which rock breaks is on ore reordering |
| 25 | 26 | 51 | DEPLETES | (LTE SPEED)* | Uses up fluid LTE speed |
| 22 | 25 | 47 | NONPAREIL | NO+N(PAR)EIL | Unrivaled negative standard bores writer Gaiman |
| 2 | 9 | 11 | GESTATION | G(reec)E+STATION | Pregnancy in Greece’s border post |
| 6 | 7 | 13 | INDEED | gIaNt DoE rEaDs | Truly giant doe reads regularly |
| 23 | 23 | 46 | ELFIN | (d)ELFIN(o) | Small isle in Super Mario Sunshine that's out of bounds |
| 16 | 1 | 17 | PAGER | (s)P(ace)+AGE+R | Second space age Romeo's messaging device |
| 18 | 24 | 42 | FLAP | F+(PAL)< | Loud friend turned to wave |
| 9 | 27 | 36 | TARPON | (h)ARP in NOT< | Not flipped containing headless harp fish |
| 11 | 8 | 19 | RUIN | RU(I)N | Run around one wreck |
| 8 | 16 | 24 | RISSOLE | R(ocky) I(v) S(oundtrack)+SOLE | "Rocky IV" soundtrack leads single French patty |
| 17 | 10 | 27 | SAGE | S+(nevad)A+GE(ts) | Herb from Sierra Nevada finally gets halved |
The filled out grid is: