Puzzles and Clues

Master Blackhead and I have a shared hobby in (no, not knitting) puzzles. We find them fascinating and have developed our own (most likely not uniques) system of piecing them together. First, we divide the pieces into 7 piles: edge, no nub, 1 nub, 2 nub, 2 nub adjacent, 3 nub, and 4 nub. Yes, we really do like saying nub. Second, we piece together the edges. Third, Master Blackhead starts in one corner and systematically adds the next piece by going through our piles, and I piece together whatever catches my eye. This works well for us. By the time I get bored of what I'm doing and move onto the next cluster, he's working on how to connect my clusters.

This past week we've put together a winter scene of Neuschwanstein Castle. I think if I wasn't obsessed with a knitting project it would have been finished sooner. As it stands, this 1500 piece puzzle took us a little under one week. Incidentally, it was the hardest puzzle I've ever done. Not piecewise (our biggest was a 6000 piece map), but in terms of image it was tough. There wasn't always a clear indication where a piece went, which is the weakness of my cluster strategy. Nonetheless, the end result is the same: a done puzzle!


So what's this knitting project I've been obsessing about? Well, it's a secret, but here's a clue. I'm writing a pattern using my (new) favorite yarn, Malabrigo Silky Merino. It's light and soft with a beautiful sheen. Here's a bit knit up so you can see it for yourself. Too bad you can't feel it too.

I'm hoping to submit this pattern to Knitty, but who knows if they'll take it. This will be the first pattern that I've written for people other than myself. I brought the incomplete garment to SSK today, and it was well received. So we'll see.

I'll leave you tonight with a picture of Jynx carefully guarding the sweater I made for Master Blackhead for Christmas. The second it hit the ground (why my hand knit is on the ground is another issue entirely, but we'll let it slide this time) he claimed it as his bed. Perhaps he's hinting that the Little Blackheads need hand knits of their own.