School Daze: In Which Dr. Inkenstein Returns To The Past

Uh-oh...new obssession, er INTEREST, on the horizon.  

Got this grouping from Peyton Street Pens at a great price, playing into Dr. I's newfound Whatever: vintage-y Sheaffers.

Testing that group of Sheaffer school pens with a dip in Skrip, then loading one with Diamine Schubert.  Dr. Inkenstein's first fountain pen was one such Sheaffer school pen, with the chrome cap and a translucent yellow body.  Somewhere along the way, that pen was lost.  It was a treat to grab these five from Peyton Street Pens.  The anassuming little Sheaffer School pen through the ages.  the shape and materials may change from decade to decade, but always reliable, alwaus fun to use.  They do not come much better for the price.

Bag It! In Which Count Sockula Re-Appears

It was a dark and stormy night, when the Pharoah of Phiber, the Sultan of Sock Yarn, none other than Count Sockula, emerged after a long sleep. 

Because it was time to crochet bags, muahahaaaa.

When you think about it, a bag is nothing more than a giant, fishnetty type of sock with no heel.  So that qualifies as scary, right?

Bags are simple, E-Z crochet fun.  You can make small ones for gift bags or large ones for shopping bags.  You might even make really huge ones for laundry bags.

Here's a scary discovery.  Done with a Q-hook in the round, and worsted-weight cotton, a single crochet stitch looks remarkably like knitted lace stitch, only it's about ten times faster to work.  Okay, we concede that crochet uses more yarn than knitting.  But speed is what Count Sockula is all about.

This is a method, not a pattern.  Grab some cotton yarn.  Four ounces might do the trick.  If all you had was worsted-weight acrylic yarn, that would work, too, but the Count enjoys cotton.   

Then, select a granny square pattern.  Any granny square pattern.  We are after speed and simplicity here.

You start with a smaller hook (anywhere from a 7 to a 9) for the first couple of rounds, increasing the granny square as usual, then switch out to progressively larger hooks (10, 11, 11.5) until the bottom of your bag is the size you want.  (The bag will magically turn from a square to a round, so make the bottom a bit smaller than you think it should be.)

Now, switch to the Q-hook, pick up the yarn, mark the beginning with a stitch marker or thread, and work a single crochet in every other stitch or so, which works really well when picking up stitches in the chain-1 spaces of your average granny square.  Do not increase at this point.  You're just going round and round. With UN-joined rounds, so you really need that stitch marker.  

(There's a variation that's even looser and more lace-ish: work sc-ch 1 all around.)

Work in the round until the bag is as long as you want.  Then switch off to a smaller hook and work the handles.  You need a smaller hook because you want the handles to be a much tighter gauge than the big, loose Q-hook stitch.  I will go back to a size 7 through 10 for the handles.  

In working the handles, do this however you like; I usually work a single-crochet chain with the yarn still attached (because Count Sockula is monumentally lazy), then go back on the chain at least once with slip stitches and work them all along the length of the chain.  Or work single-crochet handles off the bag and attach later.  Whatever suits you.

Sometimes Count Sockula goes a little crazy and works the bag on a granny rectangle. Here's a good pattern:

Here's a good pattern:

In either case, the same principles apply: stop increasing when you think the bag is almost big enough.

Here we go:

 

 

 

So there you have it: bag and baggage.  Happy Halloween, muahahaaa.

Blue? Blue-Black? Or Somewhat In-Between? In Which Dr. inkensteinWonders

My dear friend Susan, learning of Dr. Inkenstein's Grayish-Blue-Black quest, asked a great question: 'Can't you mix inks to get the exact color you want?'

 

And of course you can.  I've done it.  Lots of others have, too.  But you might run into problems when two inks from different sides of the tracks clash and start a feud.  The results: SITB, or as it's technically known, Slime/Stuff/Shinola In The Bottle.

 

Recently Dr. inkenstein had to dump an eyedropper glass bottle of Fireball, a custom red-orange mix, because of SITB.  Also a bottle of Everflo True Blue, which was not a mix at all.  And it's harder to clean a contaminiated (and potentially beloved) pen than dump a bottle, so no matter how it hurt, out the bottles went.

 

Then, when mixing inks, there is also the factor of losing one or more components of the inks, such as Wetness, Flow, Lubrication, Bulletproofness.

 

Ink.  It's kinda like science!   You need a lab coat, test tubes, a Jacob's Ladder, and maybe even lightning!

 

So on to testing more loads of blues and blue-blacks:

And yes.  You can tell that Diamine China Blue is in no way even remotely blue-black.  But I included that color to make a point.  Probably. 

And yet...what of the Misty Blue?  Has it BB elements, hints?  And the Akkerman?  Is it BB?  Indigo?  

Where do you draw the line?  And with what color?

Shootout! In Which Dr. Inkenstein Draws Down Orange

A quick-draw shootout between two sorta/kinda orange inks: Lamy Copper Orange and Noodler's Apache Sunset: the former produced as a liquid companion to Lamy's Copper Orange Al-Star fountain pen, the latter famed for its shading.

Here in scannage, there's less visible difference between the two, but In Real Life, the Lamy ink is less of a simple orange and more of an orange that can't decide if it wants to grow up to be pink, coral or red.   Maybe I like it.  Will have to see if it works well in pens with fine nibs.

The real difference is here, in the chromas.  Which read right-to-left opposite of the way they appear in the written shootout. Operator error.  But behold:

 

 

See?  Different-y.  A LOT.

 

Until next time.

MI-10: In Which Dr. Inkenstein Gets Beachy

Just havin' some fun, as the Summer Mystery arrived:

One final addition to the MI-10 Experience: I had neglected to run a chroma, so I did a quickie here.



These two were inks I might never have tried, though 'Carli' is a color right up my alley, and if I were buying an Edelstein it would be this 'n. I didn't notice the dryness many people mentioned in their reciews, but the Rotring Artpen might be a garden hose.

Loved working with 'Lloyd.' It glides in the pens I used, I see lavender and turquoise notes in the chroma. Oddly enough, 'Lloyd' seemed to have an affinity for my fingers like no other ink...ie: every time I opened the vial, some of it leapt onto them. 

So thanks once again to the Undisputed Queen of Ink-stery, for the opportunity to try a range of inks I might not have otherwise sampled.  

Stay tuned for more.

Platinum vs. Platinum: In Which Everyone Wins

Platinum makes a wide range of pens, from the inexpensive Preppys (which Dr. Inkenstein loves and owns a stable thereof) to the still-inexpensive Plaisir (ditto)....but then, I stepped over the edge.

So...Platinum Century 3776.  I had wanted the Bourgogne the minute I saw it, thinking, 'I don't really go for red pens, but this one...!

Like a ruby, glittering on velvet.  

Yes.  Must get. 

 Finally I sprang for one with a Medium nib, and it is soooo beautiful!  Like gazing into a full glass of top-flight burgundy: translucent yet deep, mysterious, elusive.

I had a moment of panic when I couldn't get a partly-empty Platinum cart from a Preppy (filled with Aurora Black) seated. But then I used a new cart and it seated and started writing in moments.

The M is not quite as broad as the Plaisir or Preppy M, or so it seems to me. And the nib is VERY springy. And just a bit scratchy, or it has an even smaller sweet spot than a Sailor nib.

(At that point, I hadn't written but a couple of sentences yet, so hoped maybe the slight catch in the nib would disappear soon.)

I think I have a medium touch, and the nib feels ULTRA-springy!   But then I am comparing it directly to the Plaisir/Preppy line, and those are, happily, nails. 

In the 3776, I have a Platinum Black cart. The Preppy has been refilled with Aurora Black. The difference, so far, has been very difficult to discern. 


Unfortunately, there is still one snaggy spot, and I can't see anything obvious under magnification.


I see a difference in the line width with my nose a foot from the paper...but after all there are two different inks in use. Maybe the line/nib output would have seemed closer with the same ink, but the Preppy does write broader and maybe wetter.

Final thoughts on this gorgeous writing instrument?

To be perfectly blunt, well...I got it at a good price.  It's PURDY.  And I'm getting used to it.  But other than its looks, I did not experience that 'swoon, this is PERFECT!' feeling I get from Sailor ™ pens, or that robust friendliness Platinum offers in its lower-end models.  And if I'm being honest with myself, I'll reach for a Plaisir or a Preppy before the 3776.

Continuation! In which Dr. Inkenstein Furthers the Blue-Black Quest

Three pens loaded for testing.

Due to the ink tests, I decided that Diamine Twilight will be the next ink in my five-dollar Tachikawa manga pen, which may approximate the mix of original black ink and the Noodler's Navaho Turquoise I kept throwing into there.

Five days later, Dr. I. was still soaking and flushing that needle-nib pen that had been filled and never cleaned for ten years....water in cup still blue after one week's soaking. Ten years. Five days. I suppose it will take its own sweet time.

The first batch of blue-black testing, on Rhodia Uni:





The Diamine Prussian Blue looks greener than it is...the Tanzanite and Chopin look all to similar in this scan. I believe the Chopin is a little 'softer.' Thanks to KLP for both those samples!

Ooo...maybe I'll do a trio of chromas...

Which turned into a quartet. Diamine Prussian Blue shows turquoise in its corona. Edelstein Tanzanite washes into a royal blue, while Chopin plays it slate. The Skrip BB is from the conical Slovenia bottle and has a really interesting forest-green center.  Dr. Inkenstein loves inks with complex chromas.

To be continued....soon.

Blue-Black On The Gray Side: In Which Dr. Inkenstein Goes on a Quest

Once upon a time, Dr.  Inkenstein needed a blue-black ink that leaned gray.  Muahahaaaa!


You don't normally think of spring and summer when you think, 'Blue-black inks!  Yeahhh!'  You kinda think, 'Autumn.  Gray.  Rainy.'


Unless it's a rainy spring day.  In which case, on with the show:

 Chesterfield Sodalite (which is, I THINK, some sort of Diamine ink) was my go-to,  gray-leaning blue-black.

However, when I recently loaded it in a hooded Jinhao 599,  the ink looked gray. Just gray. As in...gray.


And it seemed very dry. Draggy, even!  Perhaps it's IG? In any case, it doesn't seem to be the same ink color I started out with.

So began the Quest for something WET and lubricated, a blue-black that tends toward gray but still has identifiable blue components.

Not greenish. I love that, but have plenty of those!   I went to some fountain pen forums for suggestions and got several good ones.  AND some donated ink samples from KLP and Reprieve and others!

 

Thanks for your generosity!

.I next dip- tested as many inks as I could on a small piece of Rhodia. I used some of the inks sent by KLP and Reprieve (sincere thanks to you both for your generosity!), plus the few I had on hand that were suggested.

Only the Diamine Denim was actually loaded in an actual pen. 





The color in this scan isn't fully accurate, but you can see Diamine Twilight was too green, and JH Bleu Nuit too blue for this Quest, though both are lovely and useful colors. The Hudson looks almost as blue in the scan as Bleu Nuit but isn't.

Of my own inks, visually, the OS Manganese and Hero come close. Of the Ink Gifts, I loved the Tanzanite, Chopin, and HH. 

Next: Loading a few pens and taking them for a short test-drive. Stay tuned. 

Nightwalk! In Which Dr. Inkenstein Returns To Fandom

EXCERPT.  With "cover" illo:

Disclaimer: Kenshin does not own the Yuu Yuu Hakusho characters (they are the property of Togashi Yoshihiro et al), and does not make any money from said characters.

 

What Kenshin does own, however, are all the original characters in this work. Any attempt to "borrow" these characters will be met with the katana, or worse.

 

For those into timelines,Idiot Beloved is set after the Dark Tournament; Firebird Sweet follows. For background on the mysterious Agency, see Operation Rosary, Trade Secret, Farewell Mr. Groovy, and The Book of Cat With Moon. Nightwalk Pavilion takes place soon after Maya's Tale, when the boys are now in their early 20s, Hiei being the eldest by a few years.

 

This particular story concerns a couple of Spirit Detectives, detecting. And features a rare-for this author-appearance by Urameshi Yuusuke.

 

 

Title: Nightwalk Pavilion

Author: JaganshiKenshin

Genre: General, Mystery

Rating: K+/PG-13

 

Summary: The town is deserted, Kuwabara is acting strangely, and Kurama is missing. It's up to Hiei and Yuusuke to find out why.

 

A/N: Thanks for reading this, and I appreciate your reviews!

 

Could it really be a place where dreams come true?

 

Nightwalk Pavilion (Part 1: Barrier! Hiei and Yuusuke Walk Into A Trap!)

by

Kenshin

 

On that soft June night, the main drag was deserted, but not deserted enough.

 

"Yo, Hiei!" From the end of the block, someone hailed him, and with a long-suffering sigh, Hiei stopped.

 

Six feet of gristle and bone, with a granite slab-face topped by a carrot-colored buzz cut, Kuwabara Kazuma approached.

 

Every three or four steps, Kuwabara took a little sidewise jog, then corrected his course. Strange, Hiei thought, like he can't decide whether to stay or go.

 

Kuwabara lurched to a halt. He looked down at Hiei. He rasped, "Just the guy I wanna see."

 

"I doubt it." Hiei prided himself on having gained enough patience to handle even Kuwabara with detachment. He had, in fact, just been ejected from filming a rather involved commercial for a new department store. Two weeks of close confinement with make-up artists and costumers poking at him like some Barbie doll, and Hiei had refrained from slaying a single one of them.

 

Then the financial backers withdrew, and the project was canceled. Still Hiei had slain no one. This was progress.

Find the rest here.

Ah, Sweet Mystery of Ink! In Which Dr. inkenstein Reveals Part One

On the Fountain Pen Geeks forum, we have been playing a wonderful Ink Guessing Game, started by KLP and Laura N.  

Here's how it goes:  They send us a sample vial of Unmarked Ink.  We test it, not knowing the maker or color name, so we won't be unduly influenced by Industry Hype (ie: 'This is the Best Ink Ever!' Or, 'This Ink Will Eat Your Pen Alive!'). Sort of, almost, like a double blind science experiment.

And as we all know, Dr. Inkenstein loves science experiments.  Muahahaaaa.

I missed MI 1 so...

It started with MI 2.

By chance, I believe I picked the perfect pen for this Mystery Ink:

 

The image is scanned so you can't see much shading, but I believe there is some. For a wet ink, it still dries fast enough for this southpaw overwriter.

This has been such fun, and I can't thank you two enough for the opportunity.

PS: Chroma:

(MI 2 was revealed as Sailor Kobe Maiko Green.  Loved it.)

MI 3 proved to be a bright spot in a dark winter.

Here are just my quick impressions, but I love it too! It's not anything like any color I have or know...I call it Raspberry Sorbet. 

The chroma reveals a not-all-that-complex color halo, unlike some of my other inks, which fan out into multi-hued coronas. That's okay.  I found that J Herbin Rouge Bourgogne had a very similar chroma, but...that waan't this ink.

Have I mentioned I loved this ink? 

It dries fast enough, and does not seem quite as wet as MI 2. But it seems unique. (Now, given that I was wrong with both my MI 2 guesses, watch this 'become' an ink I already own and use, lol).

Thank you both, Laura and KLP, for this wonderful ink-ertunity, and for brightening up a snowy winter day.

This ink turned out to be...Caran D'Ache Sunset.  Never used a CDA ink before, and sadly, this is a discontinued color.  It got a little bit sticky in the pen after a coupoe of weeks, refusing to dry well.  Coulda been the pen.  Anyway the ink was a wonderful color and fun to use.

Up next: Part Two!  With at least two more inks!

Ahh, Sweet Mystery of Ink Part 2 : In Which Dr. Inkenstein Continues

When we left off, on the FPG forum we have been playing a wonderful Ink Guessing Game, started by KLP and Laura N.  

Here's how it goes:  They send us a sample vial of Unmarked Ink.  We test it, not knowing the maker or color name, so we won't be unduly influenced by Industry Hype (ie: 'This is the Best Ink Ever!' Or, 'This Ink Will Eat Your Pen Alive!'). Sort of, almost, like a double blind science experiment.

And as we all know, Dr. Inkenstein loves science experiments.  Muahahaaaa.

It started with MI 2.

Now here it continues with MI 4 and beyond.

 

Thank you both, Laura and KLP, for this wonderful ink-ertunity, and for brightening up a snowy winter that lasted well into what was allegedly spring.

It was six degrees out with howling wind! But MI 4 saved the day. 

 

Continuing in the tradition: I love this ink! It plays so nicely with the Hero and the Bagasse, and was a great color for snowy, cabin-fevery February.

Now that I look closely I may see hints of darkish green in the chroma's center and corona. I have a certain ink in the back of my mind (mostly due to the excellent flow and hue) but I'm probably wrong.

As usual.  And nope, it wasn't Chesterfield Mahogany, but revealed as De Atramentis Black-Brown.  These DA inks...innnteresstinnng.

Thanks once again to the Mystery Team that makes this possible!

Now, MI 5:   Wow. Yup. Orange. Where are my sunglasses? 

 

You will see that the AS shows more burnt-orange and has much more shading. FG is notably darker and more pink. Glitterpreppyyellowbrown is just...odd, by comparison.

MI 5 writes smooth in the pen and dries quick enough for my southpaw-y-ness. It seemed to flow fairly well in this dryish italic Nemo, which, as a demonstrator, helps to show off the liquid Vitamin C-power of the Mystery Ink.

And now for the paper towel chroma. 

Top: Apache Sunset
Middle left: Iroshizuku Fuyu-Gaki
Middle right: Preppy Yellowbrownwithcopperglitter
Bottom: Teh MYSTERY ink!

Don't they look like flowers? I have NO idea how that dark spot got onto the MI 5 'flower.' Probably a rogue microparticle of blue ink got jealous and flew right into the middle. Somehow.

 

I do have my suspects. Two of them. But I have been wrong with every. Single. Guess so far.

This was a wonderfully cheery ink for a chilly week in March when we expected TWO TO FOUR MORE INCHES OF SNOW. Will be using it to reply to some letters!

So thanks once again to our Queens of Mystery!

You will see that the AS shows more burnt-orange and has much more shading. FG is notably darker and more pink. Glitterpreppyyellowbrown is just...odd, by comparison.

MI 5 writes smooth in the pen and dries quick enough for my southpaw-y-ness. It seemed to flow fairly well in this dryish italic Nemo, which, as a demonstrator, helps to show off the liquid Vitamin C-power of the Mystery Ink.


And now for the paper towel chroma. 

Top: Apache Sunset
Middle left: Iroshizuku Fuyu-Gaki
Middle right: Preppy Yellowbrownwithcopperglitter
Bottom: Teh MYSTERY ink!

Don't they look like flowers? I have NO idea how that dark spot got onto the MI 5 'flower.' Probably a rogue microparticle of blue ink got jealous and flew right into the middle. Somehow.

I guessed that this might have been either J Herbin Orange Indienne, or Chesterfield Fire Opal.  It wasn't.  It was....Montblanc Gandhi!  Which isn't even available any more!  So I now have a vial of this Officially Rare Unobtainable Ink.

As for MI 6:

This is a slinky ink! The flow and smoothitude was remarkable. With a single dip, I was able to write this mini-review, AND a short letter to a pen pal. However, several hours later, tendrils of purple/pink were still emerging from the nib.

I think MI 6 would pair well with MI 3. The CDA Sunset that looked like raspberry sorbet. 

For my own identification purposes, I'm calling it Elderberry...though there's no such ink name as far as I know. *





The scan makes it look almost black. Though it is very dark, it has lighter and warmer tones than shown here, though no shading that I can see. But talk about flow! No smearage, either...a boon for us southpaw hookers. 

Like Laura N, I'm not a big purple ink person, but this one has some wonderful properties. I'm enjoying it.

PS: last night the water in which I was soaking the dipped nib finally ran clear....BUT when I applied paper towel to the nib, nope. So I accidentally did a chroma, lol. Slate and hot pink says it well.

* There was...but I didn't know that at the time.

This was another De Atramentis ink: Aubergine.

Wrong again.  But well, at least it was a FOOD.  

What ink shall be next?  It's a mystery to me.

Winter Persimmon: In Which Dr. Inkenstein Does January

As we all know by now, those fun-loving inksters over at the Fountain Pen Network are running a group test of all the Iroshizuku inks.  

 

I've had a lot of fun with this ink-of-the-month comparison, and Fuyu-Gaki brings a bright note to January's gray doldrums.  My test pen was a Pelikan M200 with a wonderful, tipped italic nib.  I used several papers and one other ink for comparison.

Initial Doodle:

Rhodia Paper:

Old standby Bagasse:

One comparison:

Summary:

The bottom line is, Dr. Inkenstein likes this ink more than  the Yu-Yake in a previous test (though that ink did not have any problems with flow or cleanup...just seemed too pale...).

 Fuyu-Gaki is a cheerful, happy, well-behaved color. I don't think I'd go for a bottle, however, because it's fairly close to Lamy's Neon Coral, which I already have.  And my ink shelf's running out of room.