This is my first end-of-the-year puzzle recap since it's the first year of my voracious at-home puzzle habit. For years we've had puzzles going at work for people to enjoy between projects. When the work-from-home order came down, I was able to resume the hobby at home thanks to a few puzzles a neighbor left in the lobby.
Above are the highlights. Below is the full list in chronological order, along with some nerdy analysis. Pictures of all the puzzles, including the completed puzzles, in-progress shots, and photos in which my cats have claimed the puzzles for their own, can be seen on my Instagram.
In order
APRIL
- Eight Arms for You, 1000 pieces, New York Puzzle Co
- Mammals With Mohawks, 500 pieces, Mudpuppy
MAY
- Potato Chips, 506 pieces, Bepuzzled (pictured above: right column, center row)
- Dog Gallery, 1000 pieces, Cobble Hill
- Légumes, 1000 pieces, New York Puzzle Co (pictured above: center column, bottom row)
JUNE
- Snowy Owl With Pentagram, 500 pieces, Educa Puzzles
- NPR Podcasts, 1000 pieces, New York Puzzle Co
- The New Yorker: View of the World from 9th Avenue, 1000 pieces, New York Puzzle Co (pictured above: left column, center row)
- NPR Sound Community, 1000 pieces, New York Puzzle Co
- Brooklyn Magnetic City Puzzle, 100 pieces, GeoToys
JULY
- Zodiac, 500 pieces (and circular!), Moruska
- Stag, 1000 pieces, High Quality Wood Products
AUGUST
- Vintage Cereal Boxes, 1000 pieces, White Mountain Puzzles
- National Parks, 1000 pieces, Ravensburger (pictured above: right column, bottom row)
- Disney/Pixar, 1000 pieces, Ravensburger
SEPTEMBER
- Rainbow, 1000 pieces, Cobble Hill (pictured above: center)
- Lightning Striking Tree, 1000 pieces, Eurographics (pictured above: left column, bottom row)
OCTOBER
- National Parks Vintage Puzzle, 1000 pieces, Cavallini & Co
- Gustav Klimt's "The Kiss," 1000 pieces, Piatnik
- Icing on the Cake, 1000 pieces, Springbok
NOVEMBER
- Bibliophile: Book Club Darlings, 1000 pieces, Galison
- I Had One of Those!, 1000 pieces, White Mountain Puzzles
DECEMBER
- Phish "Rift" Album Cover Art, 550 pieces, Banana Road (?)
- The New Yorker: Liberty, 500 pieces, New York Puzzle Co
- The World of Frida Kahlo, 1000 pieces, Laurence King Publishing (pictured above: right column, top row)
- The New Yorker: Yellow Brick Roadblock, 1000 pieces, New York Puzzle Co
- Butterflies of North America, 500 pieces, Mudpuppy (pictured above: center column, top row)
- Maps, 500 pieces, Rifle Paper Co
- Summer at the Amusement Park, 500 pieces, Mudpuppy
- Cat Library, 1000 pieces, Cobble Hill
- Pop Culture, 1000 pieces, White Mountain Puzzles
- Star Trek: The Next Generation, 500 pieces, iseeme.com (pictured above: left column, top row)
By piece count
1000 pieces: 19
~500 pieces: 12 (this includes two oddballs of 506 and 550 pieces)
100 pieces: 1 (the magnetic puzzle)
The reason I don't go larger than 1000 is my puzzle table (also known as the kitchen table) is 35" in diameter, which limits the size of the puzzle it can hold. For three puzzles (Cake and two of the White Mountain puzzles), I had to place a 36" x 24" poster frame on the table and work on that.
By brand
New York Puzzle Company created seven of the puzzles I worked on this year, including all of the New Yorker magazine covers, the two NPR puzzles, the Légumes, and the first one I did this year: "Eight Arms for You." I did three each from Mudpuppy (Mammals with Mohawks, Butterflies of North America, Summer at the Amusement Park), White Mountain Puzzles (the three nostalgia ones), and Cobble Hill (Dog Gallery, Cat Library, and Rainbow). The two Ravensburgers (National Parks and Disney/Pixar) were from a neighbor. All the rest were one-offs, including Piatnik and Springbok which I know from office puzzling.
By subject matter
- Animals: 8 (Eight Arms, Mammals, Dog Gallery, Snowy Owl, Zodiac, Stag, Butterflies, Cat Library)
- New York: 7 (the 3 New Yorker covers, the 2 NPR puzzles, Brooklyn, Amusement Park)
- Entertainment: 5 (Star Trek, Disney/Pixar, The Rift, Cat Library, Book Club Darlings)
- Maps: 4 (Brooklyn, New Yorker's View, National Parks, Maps)
- Food: 4 (Potato Chips, Légumes, Cereal, Cake)
- Nature: 3 (Lightning, the 2 National Parks puzzles)
- Toys: 3 (I Had One of Those, Pop Culture, Disney/Pixar)
- Fine Art: 2 (The Kiss, Frida Kahlo)
- Rainbows: 1 (Rainbow)
How'd I do?
I only gave up on two of them: Snowy Owl and Book Club Darlings, both of which were the type of puzzle where every shape is identical (why). In the former, I ended up with 12 pieces that wouldn't fit anywhere (so, clearly not identical enough), and in the latter, I ended up with 70 pieces that were all solid white, and I just decided I wasn't going to put myself through that.
I cheated to get through the Stag puzzle, another one with identically shaped pieces that was going to be a slog to the end. Fortunately, the pieces were such a tight fit that I could pick the puzzle up and flip it over, where there was a letter pattern that helped me find the spots for the last few pieces.
I finished all the rest without cheating, and in most cases without looking at the image on the box (after the initial look to decide which puzzle to do). The third puzzle I worked on was the potato chip puzzle, which didn't have an image to work off of, so I guess that broke me of the habit early. Potato Chips, Lightning Striking Tree, and The Kiss were probably the hardest ones I finished this year (except the Stag). I suppose you could say I didn't "finish" The Kiss or Butterflies since they came to me with pieces missing, but I got as far as I could. Zodiac I finished despite an extra challenge they threw in the box: two decoy pieces!
Where did all these puzzles come from?
Puzzle swaps:
- My friend Holly loaned me Cereal, Lightning, and Cake.
- I got the two Ravensburgers (National Parks and Disney/Pixar) from a neighbor, two of the New Yorker covers (Liberty and Roadblock) from another neighbor, and the Frida Kahlo one from a third neighbor.
- Eight Arms and Mammals presumably also came from a neighbor but I don't know who since they were anonymously left in the lobby. I swapped those two away to a stranger (friend of a friend) who gave me Dog Gallery and Snowy Owl, both of which have been sent off to friends. The friend I sent the Owl to sent me The Kiss and Book Club Darlings in return.
- My friend Marissa sent me Pop Culture in exchange for one of the NPR ones.
- I took The Rift from my parents' house, but we think it was originally my sister's, so that wasn't a swap but it's back with her now anyway.
- Kathleen gave me Rainbow, and got one for herself so we could puzzle together.
- Justine gave me the Stag, Zodiac, and a third one that I'm saving for the winter because it looks hard.
- Hillary was my secret gift giver in a holiday gift exchange and sent me Cat Library.
- Kathryn, Courtney, Jess, and Kyle got together and gifted me the New Yorker's View puzzle and the magnetic Brooklyn map for my birthday.
- Cricket and Mark gave me the Vintage National Parks puzzle which came in an attractive cylinder box.
- I Had One of Those was a kind thank you gift from Jason for working on the band's Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade appearance press release.
- Lindsay & Leslie gave me the Star Trek one as a holiday gift.
- Finally, an embarrassment of puzzle riches came from my parents for my birthday, Chanukah, and just because: Potato Chips (many years ago), the two NPRs, Légumes, Maps, two of the Mudpuppys (Butterflies and Amusement Park), and another hard one that I'm saving for later.
And where did they go?
- The swaps were all returned to their owners except for The Kiss and Pop Culture which I was told I could keep, and Book Club Darlings which is a swap-in-progress (the owner is still working on Rainbow). NPR Sound Community and Légumes are still out on loan.
- Zodiac and View are on loan to my sister for her to do with her kids; the former will be a special challenge for them since that's the one with the decoy pieces.
- Stag and Potato Chips are pinned to walls in my apartment because they stay together without the use of glue or tape. Brooklyn is still magneted to the magnet board I assembled it on (currently covered with holiday cards).
- The rest are all still here and most are candidates for swapping if you're interested!
No comments:
Post a Comment