March 2024 has been an incredibly busy month for me, as I was preparing to move house, and so I unfortunately haven’t managed to spend as much time with my pens and inks, or on this blog as I’d have liked. We finally moved on Friday though, and are starting to get settled and get everything unpacked, so I have high hopes that I’ll be back to writing and blogging more consistently in April.

My most used pen this month is one of the same as last month, and it’s because it’s my current favourite pen in my entire collection: my Platinum #3776 Nice Lavande with a fine nib. I still have this pen inked up with Diamine Jet Black, and I use it most days for writing in my journal. My current journal is a Moleskine notebook, and since they’re famously not great for fountain pens, the Platinum #3776 is perfect for writing in it, because it writes so fine that there’s hardly any ghosting or bleed through.

Otherwise a lot of my pen and ink usage this month has been trying out new things that I bought.

Firstly, new pens! I bought two different Kaweco pens this month, which is what inspired my recent Kaweco Collection blog post. I got the Kaweco Sport in the Macchiato colour, which I’ve had my eye on for a while, and also my first Kaweco Al-Sport in Vibrant Violet. I inked up the Macchiato Sport with a new ink I got this month, Octopus Fluids Karamell, and this has to be one of my favourite brown inks I’ve tried yet (and I love brown inks!). As the name suggests, this is a really warm toned brown ink, and whilst it doesn’t particularly match the beigey brown shade of the pen, I’ve been enjoying the combination.

The Kaweco Al-Sport I inked up with an old favourite, Diamine Deep Magenta, and I’ve been really enjoying using this pen. The metal pen body definitely makes this feel like a far more luxurious pen than the regular Sport, and I absolutely love the Vibrant Violet colour!

I’ve also had a variety of other new inks that I’ve been trying out in some of the pens I already owned. I tried two Faber-Castell inks this month: Violet Blue and Hazelnut Brown. I inked both of these up in a couple of Jinhao 82s, and whilst I’m impressed with both of these ink colours, it’s the Violet Blue that’s become a new favourite. I’ve been on the lookout for a lilac coloured ink, and this one is such a beautiful pale blueish purple.

I also got another Octopus Fluids ink this month, this one from their pastel range, Cherry Blossom. I inked this up in my Jinhao 82 Mini, and whilst I really like the pastel pink colour, it doesn’t have the greatest legibility because it’s so light (as you can see in the image), which I should have foreseen. It’s still a very pretty colour though!

I also tried out my first shimmer ink this month, Diamine Moondust, which is a beautiful dark grey ink with silver shimmer. I don’t have many pens with a nib larger than fine, but I didn’t want to clog a pen, so I chose one of my few mediums: my black glittery Jinhao x750. I wasn’t immediately blown away by this ink, as I couldn’t see all that much shimmer at first (it definitely doesn’t show up in the photo!). But after more use, I’ve really grown to enjoy the subtle shimmer, and it hasn’t yet clogged my pen, which is good news! I’m definitely interested to experiment further with shimmer inks, and also with sheening inks, so that’s next on my shopping list!

So how has your March 2024 been? What pens and inks have you been using the most?