Monday, December 22, 2008

Angel Wings

angelwingsfinished

I made up this pattern because I couldn't find a single angel pattern on Ravelry with wings of this traditional shape - just ruffles or bow-tie shapes. These wings can be sewn on any angel or doll of the right size.

Can be made with any size yarn, with hook to match. Sample uses worsted-weight acrylic and US 8 (5mm) hook; each wing is about 2 inches tall.

Chain 5, join with slip stitch to form ring. Ch 2, turn. Work 11 double crochets (American) into ring over yarn tail, join with sl st into top ch. Pull on yarn tail to snug up the "wheel". Work should now look like photograph A below. This is the top rounded part of the angel wing.

angelwings1

Now chain 7. Hold the work with the wheel on the left, chain at the bottom right, so that it looks like photograph B below - the Vs all point in the same direction, wrapping around the wheel. This makes a much prettier edge than if there was a sharp bend between wheel and chain.

angelwings2

Single crochet (American) into 2nd ch from hook, then sc into next 4 chs for a total of 5 scs. Join to "wheel" with sl st, between the first and second dc up from where the chain joins - photograph C below shows the crochet hook inserted and ready to make the sl st.

angelwings3

Now sl st between the second and third dcs up from the chain - that is, into the gap between dcs just above the gap you worked into in photograph C. This is the equivalent of a turning chain, moving the working yarn up to where you need it for the next row. Work should now look like photograph D below (which looks a little drunken because I had to take it upside down to show what I wanted to show). Turn.

angelwings4

Now look at what is now the back of the work - the side shown in photograph D above. Just below the hook is a whole row of little V-chain-like things. The top two are those slip stitches you just made - ignore them. The third one is a single crochet - skip that. Sc into the next one, the second sc from the wheel, which is the fourth little V-chain from the hook. Got that?

Now insert hook into third sc, draw up a loop, then into 4th sc, draw up a loop, now yarn over hook and draw through all 3 loops on hook. You have decreased one st. Ch 1, turn.

Sc into second sc from hook - that is, the one right next to the wheel. Sl st into the gap between the third and fourth dcs from where the chain joined the wheel - this may be a little hard to actually count, since there's no visible jog between chain and wheel now, but it's right next to where your hook is anyway at this point. Photograph E below shows the hook inserted in the correct place.

angelwings5

Cut the yarn and pull the end out, turning that last sl st into a "finish off". Weave in ends.

This pattern copyright December 2008 Maria Grace McClamrock, aka "telcontar" on Ravelry.