Pam Alison Knits

Throughout the tail end of 2025 I was yearning for something different in the way of stationery, so I spent some time browsing my favourite websites but never really found something special that would satisfy my cravings. Then on the final Tuesday in December Cult Pens dropped the latest in their series of mystery bundles. I picked up the e-mail during my lunch break, took a quick look at the explanation, and dropped the £100 asking price, knowing that to think too hard about it would result in missing out. My rationale was that I needed someone else to take the decision-making on what to buy out of my hands. Often I need to be in control, sometimes being in control leaves me stranded. The package duly arrived yesterday, so let’s settle in for a cosy unboxing.

What was I expecting? Well, Cult Pens’ own explanation – whilst not divulging any details – did promise a selection of their stationery offerings including a fountain pen (you got to choose from a Fine or Medium option when placing your order and I went for Fine), and everything you would need to do something creative. In their words, the value would be more than the price of the package. I was prepared for something arty to be included and, though art isn’t my strong point, the potential to prod me into doing something out of my comfort zone was enticing. I hoped for a fountain pen in the higher-starter price range, probably around £50 value. Then some bits and bobs. Ripping open the package, I made sure not to peep inside, and instead dug my hand in to pull out one item at a time. First out was the biggest, just so I could make the rest easier to get at.

This made for an exciting start, exactly filling the criteria for something out of my comfort zone. I can’t “art” to save my life, but if I could I would choose watercolour. Even if I don’t do anything more than a simple colour wash on paper, it will be a bit of fun to stretch my limits. This does, as promised, include everything needed to do a creative project. Strong start. (Winsor and Newton list this set on their website at £50.)

Next out was another larger item, an A5 notebook by Caran d’Ache with a pretty metallic blue cover and lined pages. Well, you can’t go wrong with a nice notebook and this is a good, solid addition to my stash. Top marks again, Cult Pens. This was going very well indeed, but was I heading for a disappointment? (The Caran d’Ache notebook is currently £14.40 on Cult Pens’ site.)

Digging around a bit in the envelope, I pulled out the smaller items, the ones that felt like your everday pens and pencils and that’s exactly what they were. Yet here, again, were useful things that I simply never bother buying myself. A Blackwing pencil – this is their recent special edition, the 140, which is an homage to the culinary arts. Doesn’t look much like a cake to me and that is about as culinary as I get! Yet a silver pencil is a pretty splendid thing and I do like to have a pencil on hand for occasions when only a pencil will do, such as when tracing onto baking parchment to make the liner for a cake tin – well, look, the culinary angle works perfectly. Then three pens by Shneider. First, an extra-broad black ballpoint, good for addressing envelopes, then a black fine-tip and there’s always some way to use those. Finally, and maybe my favourite of the three, a medium green ballpoint. These will definitely find a home with me. (These four items come to £10.84 at current/equivalent prices from Cult Pens.)

On the next dip I finally found something I wasn’t immediately taken with: this own-brand weekly planner shaped to fit around a keyboard. Then again, even if I only use it as scrap paper, it will get used. It’s a reasonably good paper quality and I don’t dislike the squiggly decoration. Something’s got to be your least favourite and, as least favourites go, this is still pretty good. (This is currently priced at £3.60 on the website.) Was this the start of the end, or just a blip?

I could feel another couple of small items so pulled them out and was back to the good stuff with a bang. I already have a couple of these metallic highlighters from Faber-Castell and I love them. Blue and green are good colours, too, so more than happy with these. (A tiny value of £2.40, but I’ll get more than that much enjoyment out of using them.)

Aha, then we were back to Winsor and Newton with three vibrant dual-tip markers. Nice colours, a stationery basic, these won’t be used every day, but every so often they will turn out to be exactly what I wanted. In fact, I’m already dreaming up fun things I could do with them. As with the watercolour set, they fit that arty/stretch your boundaries vibe which I wanted to lean into. (Again, I had to look on Winsor and Newton’s site for these, where they were priced at £10 for the pack.)

Just three intriguing box-shaped objects left, and first out was a fountain pen, but no ordinary fountain pen. This offering from the brand Online features erasable ink cartridges. Just as with erasable ballpoints, the ink reacts to heat provided by the friction of rubbing the clear top on the back end of the pen over the writing. This is the kind of product that simply amuses me. I would never buy it, but owning it is quite joyful. (Cheap and cheerful at £12 – a small price to pay for a laugh.)

The penultimate dip and now we’re talking. I love the gift sleeve design, very classy. And inside, the Faber-Castell Neo fountain pen in the black and rose gold finish with a fine nib. This is right up my boulevard. I haven’t had the best luck with Faber-Castell as a fountain pen brand, but they have a great reputation and the Neo design has been pinging my radar for a couple of years. The fact I had never bitten the bullet perfectly proves the point of needing to take the decision-making out of my hands. The universe wanted me to have this pen and delivered it to me. I can’t wait to see how I get on with it. (Cult Pens currently have this in their sale at £52.)

I had a bit of déjà-vue when I pulled the final box out of the envelope. Faber-Castell again? Same lovely sleeve? Indeed, but this time snuggling inside was the quite hefty Ambition rollerball. Once again, this isn’t something I’d generally buy for myself, especially with the black barrel, but it’s a pen which I think is going to worm its way into my affections. I can see it sitting happily in one of the pen slots in my gorgeous Enny shoulder bag and being much admired when I whip it out to jot down a quick note. I can’t deny the look and feel of the Faber-Castell pens is impressive. (Again, this is currently in the Cult Pens sale at a price of £36 which I’d say is an absolute steal.)

So there we have it. I have to say it was a lot of fun to unpack this bundle and discover each item. I know I’m going to enjoy getting to know them over the coming months. Some of them will no doubt appear in their own blog posts, especially the Faber-Castell pens and the Online erasable fountain pen. Overall, do I feel the asking price of £100 was fair? I wouldn’t hesitate to say yes – the total value I came up with (from vendors I would personally shop at, though doubtless you can get cheaper from Amazon and Temu) was £191.24 and that makes it feel like I got a bargain. However, part of my positive reaction is that I was in the mood to try something a bit different. If you ever find yourself feeling like that and the chance to buy a bundle like this crops up, I’d say jump on it.