Puzzling

I love doing jigsaw puzzles, a topic I'm sure I've written about before (if I was a real blogger I would index my posts and be able to provide a link here to an earlier article. I am not a real blogger).  I love the orderliness of them, the transformation from a pile of pieces to a coherent scene.  I wonder if anyone has ever studied the spatial reasoning ability associated with jigsaw puzzles. In my experience, they are a largely female pursuit.  But, are they really different from Legos?  Why don't we talk about using jigsaw puzzles as a way to encourage women into engineering? 

This week I undertook a 2000 piece puzzle.  The first time I've attempted such a feat.  I admit to being a bit intimidated at the beginning. Luckily, I had looked at the puzzle measurements before starting and realized that the only surface available to me would be the dining room table. I would have been really upset if I'd started on the card table and then had to move!

Here is what the puzzle looked liked after day 1. I always like to do the border first. Unlike many puzzles, the sky was the easiest part and I started with that.

After another few days of work I got to this point. It felt like I had a long way to go yet, but I had finished the "window" and most of the shelves in the other corner.  The big open areas were the ones where the colors were very similar...save those for last.

Another day and I am almost done now...still left to do--the greenish-brownish wood at the bottom.  I was tempted to go to bed at this point, but decided to see if I could finish. I slowly worked on the wood, piece by piece.

This almost turned out to be a 1999 piece puzzle.  All done and one piece AWOL!!!  I blamed the cats.  They aren't allowed on the dining room table, but every now and then I would knock a piece to the floor and they would bat it away if I didn't quickly retrieve it.  I was pretty frustrated at not being able to finish.

But, eureka!  The piece was found and puzzle completed.

I feel more confident about attempting another now.  Like most things, you need to break the problem down into smaller tasks and tackle them one by one.  Look for the easy parts, work on those, and gradually the whole will fall into place.

Maybe next year I'll put together a big Lego set!