Needles and a Pen » Knitting, Sewing, and Nursing School

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  • Welcome to my blog!

    Hi! I'm Traci. I'm a Registered Nurse who loves quilting, knitting, cross stitch, and the great outdoors. In my pre-scrubs life, I owned Real Photography, and you can still see my old wedding and portrait photography site here .

    I've created a map that shows links to our camping/hiking/general family fun review posts that you can find here. It's pretty much the coolest thing on this site. Thanks, Google!

    I great big puffy heart *love* comments, so please let me know you visited! I try to always reply!

Category Archives: clothing

Il Grande Favorito | Adult Handknit Sweater

One of my biggest successes in January was finishing my first adult sweater! This poor sweater had no less than four (five? seven? Seriously–it was insane) necklines before it was finally done. It sat for 6 years just needing a neckline! (Actually, I had originally intended to frog the sleeves and reknit them smaller, but […]

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2020 Make Nine Wrap-Up

Happy 2021! While 2020 didn’t go as planned, I was surprised to learn I actually finished eight of the nine projects I’d set as a goal for in those naive early days of pre-pandemic 2020! I failed to pick up knitting needles even once in 2020, but the rest of the projects, even the massive […]

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Happy Tank Pattern Review

After my Woodstock Tee success I couldn’t wait to try the Happy Tank, also by Hey June Handmade. It did not make me happy. The strap attachments are difficult and don’t look great. I can’t imagine a way to make them straight or finished looking with the bulk of four braided straps being attached to […]

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Woodstock Swing Tee Pattern Review

With my sewing area finally coming together, I’ve been doing a lot more sewing! One of my ongoing goals has been to make friends with my coverstitch machine (a Janome Coverpro 900) and I realized practicing on garments for the KIDS is a lot less angsty that working on garments for ME. This Woodstock Swing […]

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