So I Finished Figure 72

...and went straight on to Figure 78, Sechseckiges Deckchen mit tiefen Zacken (hexagonal doily with sharp teeth).
This one is all nice and organized in the center, and gets a little strange towards the edges. I'll be interested to see how it blocks out.

Once again, I found the chart was cut along the left side and pasted back together missing some stitches. In this case, the first part of the chart was shown twice, and the second part was symmetrical, so I think I have it worked out.

It's like codebreaking, especially since the original instructions are not only in German, which I never studied, but also in the lovely and confusing fraktur.

A complete puzzle from start to finish - I guess only my fellow puzzle fanatics can quite understand the fascination and the satisfaction of wrestling it into submission.

I've gone and ordered the other two Christine Duchrow books published by Lacis, and their somewhat abridged version of Kunst-Stricken. It was the devil to try and find used copies of these books that are still in print and on offer from the publisher - apparently while I wasn't looking, the used book market fell on its head and forgot that "used copy" was supposed to mean "cheaper copy".

One of the great delights of the early internet for me was the sudden access to used book markets. Instead of contracting with a book-finding service, I could go to AbeBooks or BookFinder and poof! find a copy of a great out-of-print book for half the price or less of new.

Now it looks like some of the used booksellers aren't doing their own research and checking for in-print status and new-from-the-publisher price, especially not for niche things like reprints from small publishers like Lacis.

Instead they're checking Amazon, seeing a price of $36, and pricing their copy at $36. Meanwhile, the new price is $22. hmph!