Friday, November 06, 2009

Ghost angel

When my good friend Althea Burger wanted to make a little loom knitted angel, she decided to modify Boo-Ella, my little Halloween ghost, and I just love what she did. Pictured above is Althea's ghost and angel, which sort of looks like a knitted version of your good & bad conscience. Here's how Althea took the pattern from being "bad to good":

The angel is knit from the head down using the 12 peg KK flower loom and a single strand of 4 ply yarn. To begin, work a drawstring cast on and knit 28 rows; this forms the head and the body.

Close the cast on edge by cinching the beginning drawstring. Bring the yarn tails to the inside and tie off. When I made Boo-Ella, I did a picot bind off. However, Althea didn’t do anything fancy, just threaded a needle thru the loops, took them off the pegs, and tied it off very loosely.(Note: If you wanted to add a little more ruffle to the skirt edge, you could work a basic flat bind off and add one or two extra chain stitches to each peg by knitting off the same peg once or twice during the bind off procedure.
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After removing the angel from the loom, stretch the bottom to shape it into a flared skirt or let the edge curl up just a little; the effect you get here depends on the type bind off you used. If you did the needle thru the loops bind off, then the skirt will curl just a little. If you did extra stitches between the bind off stitches, the skirt will flare out just a bit.

The head is just a 1 "Styrofoam ball stuffed up inside and some yarn threaded thru the neckline on a yarn needle, which is pulled tight and tied off. Embroider eyes and mouth.

The wings are made in two pieces and stitched together. To make one wing, use the 12-peg flower loom and do a drawstring cast on. Knit for 6 rows; finish the cast on and bind off edge the same way you did the angel’s body. After removing from the loom, stretch out the open edge (step 1, pictured below), mash the bell shape flat to form two halves and sew the open edges together matching the stitches (step 2, pictured below). This completes one wing (step 3, pictured below). Make another wing and sew the two wings together where the cinched cast on edges meet. Sew the wings onto the back as one piece along the center-line.
The halo is simply a plastic wedding ring used as a party decoration from Wal-Mart. It has a cut in it which allows you to spread it apart, attach it to the stitches of the head, and snap shut so it stays there.

The arms are knit as one piece using two pegs to create a 13 row I-cord. Use the drawstring cast on for it, too. Be sure to leave about a 3 inch yarn tail at both ends. Thread one tail in a yarn needle and push it thru the body below the head on one side and out the other side. Adjust the arms so they are both the same length and tie the tails so it looks like praying hands.


This is optional, but you can tie a jingle bell up inside the angel or make some angels in pastel colors, too.