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: knitting

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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Lotus Flower Beanie | Fraternal Twin

The way the Lotus Flower Beanie pattern uses yarn, you have enough to make a flipped version of your hat. Ellie was the recipient of this colorful version of my Lotus Flower Beanie. As Nic said, “it’s a little crazy, just like her!” Pattern: Lotus Flower Beanie Yarn: Malabrigo Rasta Project details on Ravelry.

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Lotus Flower Hat | Malabrigo Rasta Yarn

I fell in love with this hat on Instagram and tracked down the exact yarn to make a replica, even though it meant paying international shipping! Pattern: Lotus Flower Beanie Yarn: Malabrigo Rasta in Diana and Whole Wheat Pattern Review: The pattern is easy to follow and a blast to knit up–this is a fast […]

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The unisex hat | Bray cap pattern review

I wanted to make my dad a really special hat for his birthday, so last fall I started in on a pattern I’d had my eye on for years: the Bray cap from Brooklyn tweed. It is a cable and lace pattern, perfectly doable if you’ve tried either at least once before. I knit it […]

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Subtle Christmas Hat | Winter’s Fern Pattern Review

I wanted to make my mom a hat for Christmas that was a subtle Christmas hat (versus the overtly reindeer hat I made for myself). I used Plucky Yarn (of course) in Wintery Mix, Barefoot in the Park, and Peep Toes. This was a really enjoyable colorwork knit and I will be returning to this […]

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Baa-ble hat pattern take two

When you love a knit as much as this one, you pretty much immediately have to make a second!  I wanted to see how this blue would look as the sky, and I love it!  My only disappointment in my second baa-ble is that I made an actually babble this time (the world’s most expensive […]

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