I knew I’d have more free time and less stress and worry, but I didn’t realize I’d have unexpected benefits of retirement other than those.

What Are The Unexpected Benefits of Retirement?

The expression, “stop and smell the roses” has always seemed trite and uninspiring as advice.  Perhaps it’s because I don’t really like the smell of roses. Maybe it’s just that the response seems a bit too lazy. I also never considered myself the touchy-feely sort of guy who could be easily moved by simple joys.

But I’ve been surprised lately at what extra, stress-free time allows for. My mind is no longer cluttered with to-do lists, project plans, and a full in-box. As such, I find myself focusing on things that bring joy.

I will now notice subtle things of beauty that would have been completely drowned out before. There is a thrill when I see radioactive green yarn on a purple background. Or the joyous anticipation of looking forward to a simple satisfying snack of cottage cheese on Ritz crackers as I drive home.

I think there were two reasons that I didn’t experience these things.  One is that my brain was just overstimulated with other “shiny objects” which dulled out more subtle pleasures in comparison. Or two, I just didn’t have the bandwidth to stop and see the beauty.

I don’t recommend that you stop and notice simple joys. This blog post is more of a spoiler alert as to what you might expect when you’re not longer going at full-tilt.

Or perhaps everyone already knew this and it’s just new to me.

Current Knitting

I had to put down my Fox Paws scarf again for a little bit. It was a welcome relief to focus on other projects for a couple of days.

I made slight progress on the Splongs (adapted Sports by Stephen West)

This shows the first leg just below the knee. And since the rounds get shorter, it should move along quickly until I get to the second leg.

I also finished cranking the tubular infinity scarf I screwed up in the video blog.

This is what it looked like right off the machine. I’ve since dropped every fourth column of stitches and grafted the ends of the tube together.

I’m very pleased with how it turned out. So pleased, I’ve cranked out three more tubes of Universe Yarn and will turn these beauties into infinity scarves as well

Readers’ Comments/Questions

Thank you all for the feedback on the “Knitting with QueerJoe” premiere episode. I plan on continuing it once or twice a month.  I will continue to do regular posts to the blog (like this one). But I loved sitting down with you all to knit and chat. Based on Michèle’s comment, I will be doing French subtitles in the future. They will be auto-generated, so may not be accurate, but I’d be glad to add other languages as well if it assists folks.

I’d like to give credit to Christopher at Cabinboyknits for his videos. I stole some of his format for mine, but mostly I was inspired to do videos because of his great fiber-related videos.