Pam Alison Knits

It’s been a quiet time around here as recuperating from a cold and then a steadily increasing workload in the day-job have turned my attention away from my hobbies. However, it soon becomes apparent that without my hobbies my head implodes, so I’m making the effort to pick them up and keep myself sane.

First up, I bought a new notebook to journal in. I wasn’t going to do that because I knew I wanted to move away from compromising on some key preferences simply in order to buy local. Since consistency of paper quality and line spacing are two of my main requirements, I’d settled on moving into a loose-leaf notebook made up of William Hannah’s excellent lined paper. I had also decided to curtail my entries so that I would be ready to move into the new notebook at the end of the month. Through this past couple of weeks, though, I’ve felt my journal entries becoming mired in moans about workload and bus problems, which came to a head with me deciding that I need to walk away from that journal now and just start a new one. I also needed a spot of retail therapy and so yesterday I braved the possibility of rain and headed into the city with the intention of probably buying a Semikolon notebook. I’ve heard good things about this brand, and they are available from my local stationery store.

There is nothing like a trip to a local shop which caters for one of your favourite hobbies to wash the stress out of your head. However much you may look and, indeed, shop online, there’s something special about shopping in person: the immersion in both the products and the culture surrounding your hobby. You get it in antique shops, art shops, wool shops, game shops, anywhere that like-minded people congregate. Jarrolds’ stationery department – located in its own little shop a few steps from the main department store – is climbing ever higher in my esteem. On the fountain pen front, I noticed yesterday that the space given to Cross pens has reduced considerably. In their place, more space is given to Esterbrook products, incuding their large brass paper holders and blotting paper. I was suitably impressed to see that the space is now shared with some Pilot Vanishing Point pens and a few bottles of Iroshizuku ink – both of them new to the store since my last visit.

I did end up buying a new notebook, but it is not at all the one I was expecting. Keeping Semikolon in mind, I looked around the shop and the book which grabbed my attention and stayed with me to the till was from Letts of London – a well-known supplier of business diaries in the UK, and sister-company to Filofax. I’ve been avoiding these bound books for a few years on the basis that I wasn’t sure about the paper quality, but this compact book had me itching to take the chance of disappointment. I’m not sure if it was just the colour of the cover that attracted me (I was wearing a jumper in the same shade, and then my other major purchase of the trip was some bedding in a similar powder-blue), though I think I was swayed more by it being made in Great Britain, since that ties in with my feeling that we should all be gravitating towards things made in our own countries when and if we can. Either way, home it came.

The notebooks were wrapped in cellophane which isn’t conducive to getting an idea of the paper type before you buy, though it does ensure that you’re buying a product that the world and its daughter haven’t already rifled through. There was a fair amount of information available on the cover sticker, such as page count and paper gsm. At home and unwrapped, my initial impression was that the 90gsm paper seemed decent enough, the 6mm ruling was perhaps rather narrow for my taste, but that the overall look was charmingly retro with that red double-ruling at the top of each page and the blue-grey printing. Each page is numbered and the book starts with 5 pages set aside for a contents list. If you want a lined notebook for a bullet journal, this would fit the bill. As it is, I shall use the contents pages to keep a list of my pens and inks. An initial pen test with my three fine-nibbed fountain pens resulted in no bleed-through or spotting on the reverse of the page, but a degree of show-through which you don’t get with the thicker papers from William Hannah and Stamford Notebook Company (though this was nowhere near as noticeable as it is with the universally beloved Leuchtturm 80gsm paper).

The new journal has duly been started and found conducive to a fresh start. I will only want to use my ultra-fine nibs in this journal because of the 6mm ruling, but that’s no problem. I really do like the size of this book – a little smaller than A5 – and I’m impressed by the page count – 235 pages seems generous. The hard cover and ribbon bookmark are a pleasant change from my last two journals which have had more flexible covers. There is a secretarial-style flap inside the back cover to tuck in a few loose items if need be. I think it punches above the £9.99 price tag and I would be tempted to pick up another one if I see it. I couldn’t find this particular style on Letts’ website today which makes me think I may have caught the tail end of the stock. However, it’s a positive introduction to the brand and perhaps I’ll try some of their other offerings some time.