My husband is very clever, and handy with tools. He recently made a little pen holder for my desk and today it was ready to be put in place.
Isn’t it cute? It’s so little and simple, but it has this subtle slant on the front. 
He even said he’d be willing to make more! This one originally had five holes, but then Duncan got a hold of it so one end had to be removed. Maybe my next one should actually have five holes!
So I was at my new job, talking with my new boss and taking notes with my beautiful purple Visconti Rembrandt fountain pen. In the middle of our conversation, she stopped with an excited, “Oh! I have to show you something!” She opens a drawer and pulls out a purple Parker fountain pen, I think an Urban. It was a gift, she said, and she could never get used to writing with it. She had trouble with ink splotches as she wrote. “But wait, look at this!” she said, and pulled out a bottle of fountain pen ink. A full, seemingly brand-new bottle of purple Pilot ink. I agreed it was lovely.
“Here, take it, use it, ” she said. I protested but feebly; I did want the ink. She insisted she would never use it and of course I agreed to take it off her hands. It was as shame to let it live in a drawer and not be used an appreciated, right? Now I have two bottles of ink, both purple, and it was fun to get them both out and play around. I’m so happy that they’re slightly different shades of purple, and I actually like this new one a little better.
I didn’t think I’d ever get into bottled ink for my fountain pens, but it is rather addictive. The pretty glass bottles, the beautiful colors…I think I have something else to collect, I’m afraid!
Through all my years as a pen enthusiast, I always said I didn’t like the look of the LAMY Al-Star or Safari pens. Something about the clip put me off, despite how much I loved all of their bright colors. Then I wrote with one, and I’ll be darned if I didn’t love it. I love the triangle grip, I love the smoothness of the nib (my fave is the Medium), I love that the ink flows generously. They’re lightweight but a generous length, making it easy for me to write with one for prolonged periods. The ink cartridges are proprietary, which isn’t the best, but they’re big and last a long time, and you can choose from a variety of super fun colors.
Once I realized how much I enjoyed writing with one, of course my opinion of their appearance changed, and now I like the utilitarian look of the clip. In a short time, I managed to add four LAMYs to my collection, and I thought that would be enough for quite a while. Then I saw their 2018 Vibrant Pink special edition, and I was weak (Sorry, honey. Couldn’t resist!). Mine arrived yesterday and it’s stunning!
That’s a true representation of the color: it’s this gorgeous shiny metallic fuchsia, which might be close to overtaking purple as my favorite color.
Of course I had to get some of the matching Vibrant Pink ink cartridges too. I think I’ll need to order more right away!
The ink is just as pink and vibrant as the pen. Why would I put any other color in there?
I ordered mine from Goulet Pens and was delighted that they added a Tootsie Pop to my package; that’s a neat touch. But I’m pretty sure this pen is available at most of your favorite fine-pen sites too. Just don’t wait too long; I bet this one will be a hot seller!
A while back, I read a blog post on the Well-Appointed Desk that featured a beautiful wooden letter box sold by Galen Leather. A few clicks later, I was drooling over all the gorgeous leather goods on their site. (You too can drool: find their site here!) Aside from the stellar letter box, they had leather pen cases in a wide variety of colors and sizes. When I saw the purple one, my admiration kicked into desperation, and since it was still before Christmas, I immediately sent the link to the husband as a gift demand suggestion. He soon replied that they’re based in Turkey, and there was a long lead-time for the case, so having it by Christmas wasn’t an option. Oh well, another occasion would present itself. I couldn’t be bereft, given all the lovely gifts that I received.
But then! HaHA! Husband confessed that he had fibbed slightly, and the case was available, and was supposed to have arrived before Christmas, but had been delayed. Yes, I had another present on the way, and after several long days of waiting, it finally arrived this week. And it was truly well worth the wait, friends. Just look.
First out of the bubble wrap was the sturdy cardboard box with the beautiful logo. I love that they included a ruler/bookmark.
I lifted the lid and immediately fell in love, the color was so gorgeous. Just look at that purple!! Again, I was impressed by the packaging: a heavy paper label circled the case.
Before sliding that off, though, I explored the other items in the box: an informational card with care and cleaning instructions, and my own little handmade Evil Eye charm! I haven’t decided if it’s going to become a stitch marker or a pendant. I love it.
Finally I slid off the label, sniffed the yummy leather, and unzipped the smooth zipper. The interior is also a stunning purple, with purple elastic loops and a slot to slide in a notebook. My favorite purple pens immediately went inside.
Even though I had to wait a little while, I would definitely order from them again. Everything is extremely well-made, with incredible attention to detail. They created a wonderful experience from the very beginning, wowing me before I even got to the product. The case is gorgeous but also sturdy, and I know it will protect my pens well. I’m in love with this case, and it’ll be going everywhere with me.
This post isn’t really about yarn. While I do have a substantial yarn stash, I’m a collector of many things, including pens. Not just any pens. Fine pens, mostly. Beautiful, well-made, unusual, not-cheap pens. I have a particular fondness for fountain pens. My collection has outgrown its current storage solution, which to me only means I need more storage. But I’m also starting to question myself. I’ve been collecting mostly based on looks, but lately I’ve been using them enough, and getting a wide enough variety, that I’m starting to develop strong opinions about how they write. Now I have a couple of pens that I think are beautiful, but I don’t love to write with them.
While I recognize intellectually that it makes no sense to keep a pen you don’t like to use, there’s that collector/hoarder part of me that wants them to stay in my collection. Partly it’s a money thing: I hate to sell things for less than I paid for them, and I don’t think these pens are valuable enough to make me a profit. And partly it’s that I’m selfish and want ALL THE THINGS to be mine, especially pretty things.
Maybe I need to focus on a different perspective. If I sell them, even if it’s a little bit less than I paid, I’m still getting some money back, and I’m reclaiming some space in my collection for something that might be delightful both to look at and to use.
Like I said, my brain knows what I should do. I’ve even done it before with yarn, sold beautiful yarns that weren’t meant for me for whatever reason. I still have a large yarn stash, but they’re all yarns I love and want to use eventually. Why am I struggling now? Not sure. Still, I think I’m on the way to being able to let go. I just need to write with them some more to make sure.
Do you have something you struggle to let go of, even though you know you should?
I love birthdays, don’t you? You get to celebrate with people you love, and eat yummy food, and sometimes you get fun presents too! I celebrated a few days early this weekend with my family and enjoyed being around three little kids again. (I also enjoyed it when they left and my house was quiet again, haha!) We grilled burgers and drank margaritas and ate cake and played with puppers and it was overall a perfectly lovely party. Duncan was quite a gentleman: quiet, well-behaved, and tolerant of the kids’ attention. Grace was the naughty one, stealing a bun from a plate left too close to the edge of the table! As for the presents, I consider myself a lucky girl:
The pens are Pilot Metropolitan Pop fountain pens and they’re super cute and super fun to write with. The yarn is CASHMERE, friends. Yes, CASHMERE. I will probably cast on with it today simply because I can’t wait to knit with cashmere. And I finally got some of the color-coded cords, which I’ve been coveting for ages. Hooray, lucky me!
It’s been a nice weekend with the new pupper too. Duncan is settling in wonderfully. All three dogs get along and play well together. Duncan is still more selfish about getting attention, but the other two are sharing nicely. He loves to cuddle, loves the couches, and really loves beds.
So I consider myself pretty lucky with that too. In fact, Duncan might be the best present of all!
Today, the husband and I celebrate 20 years of marriage. Yep, two whole decades. That’s half my life. And the majority of those years have been pretty darn good, so I think we’re lucky. To mark the occasion we both took the day off work, spent last night at our favorite B&B (Southmoreland on the Country Club Plaza in Kansas City), and spent today antiquing. We were hoping to find more Mission-style furniture for our house, but didn’t find a thing. We hit a couple of small towns that were kind of sad and run-down, though we did find a bookstore. And look what I found at one of the antique stores:
A yarn section!! It wasn’t a great selection but I still walked out with two lovely skeins of sock yarn:
And at another antique store, I found these little goodies. I didn’t need either of them, but at $2 each, they still came home with me.
We were a little discouraged at not finding any furniture treasures, but we ended the day in Parkville, MO, and found an awesome store called Cool Vintage Watches. They had watches, of course, but they also had several vintage pens too. I really liked the silver/gold Montblanc ballpoint, but that didn’t really fit my budget. Instead I brought home this beauty.
It’s a Sheaffer Targa 1020 M in Imperial Brass with a 14k gold nib. It came with the converter but also takes cartridges, and since I don’t have any bottled ink, I put in one of those and it writes like a dream.
The pen is in beautiful shape. I can’t find a flaw anywhere. Plus, I already had a stainless steel Targa, so it pleases the completist in me to have a brass one as well.
It came with this nifty brass case, which has only a couple of tiny scratches on the bottom.
So, yeah, happy anniversary to me, right? I’m really pleased with my finds, and it was a treat to spend a relaxing day with the husband. We don’t get those as often as we’d like!
What do I write about when I have nothing concrete to share? I have finished no socks this week, though I have one that is close and will be done either today or tomorrow. I have a beautiful finished shawl, but it’s currently blocking and is not ready for its close-up. I can show you progress photos; they do hint at what a stunner this one will be.
The pattern is the Chevrione Shawl and I enjoyed the knit, once I got used to the lace pattern. It was still a pattern I had to focus on, so if the TV was on, I could only pay half-attention to it. I used as much of my Done Roving Frolicking Feet Mini Gradients as I could and got through the pattern as written. I think it will be gorgeous!
Oh, I know why I’m lacking in FOs: we had to rebuild part of our fence! Remember we had that huge limb come down? Well, it took two sections of fence with it, and with that large gap we had to go back to putting the dogs on chains. If you’ve done that before, you know what a hassle it is. They get tangled in each other and around things, they forget they have it and run too far and get yanked back, and I don’t trust them out there by themselves for very long, lest they somehow pull the anchors out of the dirt. So the husband and I worked quickly and had the fence repaired with two nights’ work. We felt very tired clever afterward. And the dogs (Grace especially) were delighted.
Strangely enough, I’ve been reading a lot this week, which also might account for the lack of FOs. I finished The Secret Place by Tana French, which is a gripping, tense thriller that I couldn’t put down, and I’m in the middle of The Mermaid’s Daughter by Ann Claycomb which I don’t want to put down, but is so good I don’t want to finish it, so I’m trying to ration myself. It’s got folklore, intrigue, mermaids (of course), opera, and Ireland, and so far it’s both dark and beautiful.
One more fun little thing: my knitter friend at work is a new pen addict, so I took her to The Pen Place over lunch break last week. I can’t go to the pen store without buying something of course. Look at my new pretty purple Parker pen!
Here’s hoping I have more fun knitting to show you next time!
We went on a field trip today, the husband and I. The girl was spending time with the boyfriend, and the boy wanted to hang out at home, so husband and I drove out to Lawrence, Kansas for the afternoon. We spent a lovely few hours walking around, having lunch and ice cream. There was a Busker Festival going on, so there was some street entertainment, but the best part is that so many people brought their dogs! There were dogs everywhere, and they were all much better behaved than mine would be in that situation. I petted as many as I could, but it wasn’t enough. Never enough dogs! We went to a fun stationary/art supply store, where I found a new fountain pen, a Dude.
And of course we went to the Dusty Bookshelf, where I bought a book of essays about dogs (naturally). And also of course, we went to the Yarn Barn, where I bought some yarn (naturally). But I’d left my purse at home, which meant the husband had to pay, which meant I was probably more restrained than I would have been otherwise. This is all I got:
Just one skein of Frolicking Feet in the colorway Dancing Leprechaun, and my first Zauberball! I’m pretty excited to make socks out of them. It might happen soon, too, because my current socks are going quickly. Well, okay, so I have two pairs on my needles. This pair I started for my lunchtime knitting at work, another simple pair of Vanilla Latte socks. This is Tumbleweed yarn in the color Sorority Girl and I love it so much.
But then once that was going, I started other pair, a fun pair to knit at home, a pretty hot pink pair with lace on the leg, and thanks to movie knitting yesterday and car knitting today, I’ve already turned the heel on the first sock.
The pattern is called Spring Forward (it’s free, too!) and the yarn is Merino Nylon Fingering by Knerd String, colorway Hotter! So now, let’s see if I can finish these two socks this week! I think I can, I think I can…
You get a quickie today. No finished objects again. My plans to finish the cowl were foiled by a need to knit some boot cuffs, so that’s what I worked on yesterday. And they would be a finished object if I hadn’t run out of yarn. Last night. When I have only an inch of ribbing left to knit. Sigh.
I have nothing else to show partly because I got distracted by playing with my pen collection. There’s a lovely new pen I want to buy but I have too many pens, so I thought I might pick out a few I’m willing to sell. Then I just wanted to admire all my lovely pens. See? Aren’t they pretty?
These are the ones I have to keep. And I better not hear anyone say “Another pen? Don’t you have enough already?” because I know you people. You don’t want people to say, “More yarn? Don’t you have enough already?”, right? Right.
No puppy photo today. He’s downstairs eager for his walk, and I’m eager to get him walked so I can get to the yarn store. To buy more yarn. It’s for a certain project, so I’m allowed this time!
bonnyknits 