So far you, my collective blog readership, have helped me reorganize my home, fix my car, cook vegetables with a certain amount of reliability, oh and tons of knitting stuff, too. Therefore I have the utmost confidence that at least one of you will be able to help me out with this, my latest point of puzzlement.

I bought this little jar of ink at the art supply store today. It says “Ideal for sketching, dry ink does not bleed when used with a wash.” The marketing material even recommended it for people who want to sketch and then paint with a watercolor wash. Hey, that’s me!

I bought it with the thought that I’d play around with using a brush and proper ink. You know, like a real artist. The brush would provide me with a more interesting line than the technical pens that I usually use.

Also, the jar was cute. Shut up.

On the way home I started thinking that it might be fun to use an actual pen, with a nib, to do the drawing part with the ink and all. Doesn’t that sound like fun? It sounds like fun.

“I will buy a cheap fountain pen,” I thought.

I got home and started looking around and… damn, I am confused. I remembered that Neil Gaiman recently gave some fountain pen recommendations. I went and checked, and found that he said “Never use India inks, drafting inks or drawing inks inside a fountain pen. You will gum up the insides and worse.”

Uh oh! Quick like a bunny I checked the label of my jar of ink. It is called “fountain pen ink.” But it’s for drawing. Does that make it a drawing ink? But it says it’s for fountain pens. So that should be alright, shouldn’t it?

Okay anyway, I need to find a pen. Have you ever gone shopping for a fountain pen? It is confusing. I do not know what a “dip pen” is. When I find a fountain pen, I can’t tell if it’s refillable. Obviously, I don’t want to use pre-filled cartridges. That would defeat the purpose of my cute little jar. (I’m stubborn that way.) Also, I don’t know which size “nib” to buy. And if I buy a nib, it looks like I’m buying it for a dip pen.

I don’t… know… what… I’m doing. Help?

I want a cheap pen, where you draw with a metal skritchy bit, but not too skritchy, and I want it to be refillable. I don’t want to dip the damned thing like a paintbrush… or maybe I do? I don’t know. I am lost.

I just want to draw like Ralph Steadman, is that so hard?

Update Also, if someone could tell me how to get the ****ing cap off the jar of ink, I would be much obliged.

Update [censored]!!! I cannot get the lid off!!! What the [censored], world? Why you gotta kick a girl when she’s down? I even just Googled “how to open ink bottle” in case there was some kind of eldritch trick to the process.

Update Okay, I got the lid off. Jesus. The verdict:

Comments (15)

Could tonight be the night?

Mmmmmaybe… okay, probably not.

Other items visible in this picture:

1. This is my high school diploma from 1990, which arrived in the mail today. For reals! Two weeks ago I was contacted by a former classmate, with whom I had also attended college for a few years. Somehow he ended up with my diploma. We have no idea how. Anyway, he mailed it to me.

I don’t know what to do with it now.

2. The thermometer I used to check and regulate wood stove usage. I have carefully placed this thermometer at the exact halfway point between the wood stove and the perimeter of my cabin. It can move a few inches either way, but if someone (god forbid) were to pick it up and move it somewhere else, I would be very cross.

3. A phillips-head screwdriver. I don’t know what it’s doing there. Apparently I was planning to screw or unscrew something at some point. What, I cannot say.

4. A pair of scissors. Apparently I used these to cut something. Again, not sure what.

5. A huge, lurking pile of mail. It has been opened and read, but not dealt with.

6. A scented candle, for times when the litterbox and the bathroom fan fight, and the litterbox wins. Also, for times when I cook bacon. Damn, now I want bacon.

Comments (6)

No more greens. Please? In the last week, I’ve eaten an entire head of kale, half a head of collard greens, and an entire head of iceberg lettuce.

I decided to take a break from ruining greens, and ruin a batch of muffins instead. I had an apple going soft - instead of letting it ruin itself on the kitchen counter, why not ruin it myself?

Yeah.

In other news, I finished the three squares for the dog charity blanket. Now I just need to… seam them up.

Yeah.

Comments (8)