2026 Year of the Kakuno who says no?
Using what you have is going to be a recurring theme this year, as already expensive fountain pens have been hit with the most aggressive price increases we have ever seen. No one knows how this is going to play out, but I do know that many of us will be looking at what we already own and making sure we get the most from it.
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(Kimberly (she/her) took the express train down the fountain pen/stationery rabbit hole and doesn't want to be rescued. She can be found on Instagram @allthehobbies because there really are many, many hobbies!.)
First of all, a very Happy New Year to you! I hope that you’ve had a good holiday season. I have been thinking about new year intentions and while I haven’t nailed down everything that I want to focus on in 2026, I do know that one of those things is sending more letters, aka snail mail. At one point, I had over a dozen penpals and was writing/sending letters almost every week. I’ve fallen off that wagon big time - I think I might have sent 1-2 letters in all of 2025. Eeek, time to write more in 2026!
While shopping at a local bookstore in the mountains of Colorado, I found these cool letter kits from UK-based Pigeon Posted. Each pack has 6 “pigeons”, which you fold up into its own “envelope” - just slap a stamp on it to seal it and it’s ready to go!
Pigeon Posted in Bookstore (upper left), Hop on Board (upper right), and Wonderfully Wild (bottom.)
The back shows the designs included in each pack.
The white space is for the recipient’s address. (From the Hop on Board pack.)
On the back, there is a blank space for the sender’s address, but some sorting machines (in the US, especially), can’t tell the front from the back, so it might end up coming back to you.
I love that Pigeon Posted uses artwork from a variety of artists, which they credit on the backs of the notes.
Unfold the pigeon and you’ll see more of the artwork.
A decent amount of space to write a short letter. There is a small white space in the upper right - some sets say “From:” (like this tone), and others it’s blank. I used that space to write the date and where I was sending it from, like “the mountains of Colorado”.
I didn’t know if they would be fountain pen friendly or not, but I decided to take a chance on a few packs. I figure, at worst, I’d bust out a Pilot G-2 or other standard pen. Let’s see who should be my first guinea pig…
A sampling of fountain pens used to write a short note to the Bossman. Hey Boss! Don’t read this letter too closely cuz you’ll be posting this article before this gets to you in the mail, hah.
A closeup of writing from the Pelikan Ineo (blue), Pelikan M800 Italic Broad (green), and Platinum Plaisir (pink). As juicy and thick as the M800 is, the paper handled it pretty well, but there is a bit of feathering, which is not surprising.
For the letter, I used a Pilot 823 Medium with Papier Plume Secondine, Pelikan M640 MCI with Diamine Golden Brown, Platinum Plaisir 03 with Platinum Pink cartridge, Pelikan M800 Italic Broad with Papier Plume Marina Green, and Pelikan Ineo Medium with Robert Oster Sydney.
You can see that the M800 had some ghosting and slight bleed through on the other side.
After writing my note, I re-folded the letter and sealed the corner flap with the stamp (I swear the skunk stamp was a random pick!). Not shown, my return address label which I stuck on the upper left, above the Boss’ info.
As mentioned earlier, it’s best not to put your return address on the back, so I put cute washi stamps on the back in that space.
It was so fun to get a quick note done, that I may have gone a little crazy and used up all 18 notes!
While I wouldn’t necessarily use these for actual pen pal letters because y’all know how wordy I can get, lol, it’s great for a short note or letter. While not exactly expensive (about $11 for a pack of 6), it’s not very cost effective if you have a lot of people to write to. That said, I enjoyed it so much that I went back to the bookstore and bought 5 more packs :-)
More Pigeon Posted packs - there are even more on the Pigeon Posted website.
I bought the Pigeon Posted packs at indie bookstore Next Page Books, but you can find them at various Pigeon Posted stockists, or directly from Pigeon Posted.
PS. Happy New Year! May 2026 be kinder to us all and bring us continued inky fun!
(Disclaimer:I bought the Pigeon Posted packs at regular price at Next Page Books. All pens used are my own.)
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(Sarah Read is an author, editor, yarn artist, and pen/paper/ink addict. You can find more about her at her website and on Bluesky. And her latest book, The Atropine Tree, is now available!)
I am, at heart, an optimist. I'm always convinced that better times are coming, despite having my entire millennial existence as evidence to the contrary. But generally speaking, I'm always excited for the new year to start. I wasn't excited in 2025 for REASONS, and we're certainly entering 2026 under a dark cloud, but I can sense a speck of hope the way a shark senses a drop of blood in the water--and it's there. Just a drop, but that's all I need to keep going.
And so, in a fit of optimism, I have big plans for 2026. I have goals. And I've got my toolkit ready to go. Here's the lineup.
My planner this year is the Hobonichi Weeks Mega. I like the weekly layout, the blank page with room for a running weekly checklist, and all the pages for notes at the end.
This year I also intend to keep up with a Midori 5-year diary. This black embroidered one has been in my review queue for a few months, but it felt weird to start it in the middle of the year--so, now, it is time.
My Pebble Stationery notebook is about full, and I've finally finished pulling everything useful out of my previous short story notebook, so that means it is time for a new short story notebook! I will be sad to retire my old one. It's an original Seven Seas Writer with the old Tomoe River Paper. I've filled all 480 pages with weird stories. Most have already been released into the world. Others never will be. As sad as I am to stop carrying around this old friend who has been by my side since 2017, I'm excited to crack the spine on a fresh one. Because of course when I fell in love with the Nanami Paper Seven Seas Writer, I bought four of them. This will be the second, and I have two in reserve for future weirdness. I love holding the fresh book next to the old one and seeing how beautifully it aged.
My commonplace book this year--repository of the brain dumps, lists, book reviews, and random thoughts--is an Oberon leather journal cover with one of their A5 inserts. I've used these a few times before in the past and really enjoy them. I think this sturdy leather will survive the burden of being my external brain for a year or two.
My final notebook of the year is a Midori A6 in the goat skin cover, which is my knitting book, where I make lists of projects, note pattern adjustments or yarn substitutions, etc. I've joined a sock-a-month club for 2026, and I'm excited to document that process.
For inks, I want to empty some bottles this year. I keep skimming one or two fills from the tops of 40 or 50 bottles, so the ink levels never seem to go down. This year, I want to primarily use these two inks and see if I can empty the bottles. I'll still use other inks as well, but I want to focus on these. Van Dieman's Encore Stage Fright and Monarca Arena Blanca. A tealy blue and a gold-green sepia--very practical everyday inks.
For pens, my two purse fountain pens are not changing. I've been carrying the Schon DSGN Faceted Titanium Shell fountain pen with the rainbow monoc nib since I bought it at the 2024 Chicago Pen Show. This is the most expensive fountain pen that I own, but I don't baby it. I carry it every day and I put it to work. I told myself, at the time, that I could only justify the cost of the pen if it paid for itself in stories it writes with me. Fortunately it has done that many times over, and I intend for it to continue to do so. And with the titanium and ultem body and the Schon DSGN build, I know it can handle it.
I'm also continuing to carry the Kaweco AL Sport Piston Filler fountain pen when I'm traveling or out with a smaller bag. It's such a good writer and holds an impressive amount of ink.
That is my stationery lineup for 2026. I have a goal to write 500 words a day, six days a week. That should keep me on top of my deadlines. And it should fill some notebooks and use up some inks. Hopefully.
And that's how we go into 2026: Hopefully.
Enjoy reading The Pen Addict? Then consider becoming a member to receive additional weekly content, giveaways, and discounts in The Pen Addict shop. Plus, you support me and the site directly, for which I am very grateful.
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