How to knit and crochet an angel

This post consists of an introduction and a pattern for an angel Christmas decoration.

Introduction

This year a Christmas tree festival is planned with village organisations invited to decorate a tree. An enthusiastic crafter came to choir practice with some ideas.

My last attempt at making an angel was not as successful as I had hoped. This time I hadn’t really planned to make one. I have been taking a break from knitting due to painful thumbs, but I decided I needed the headspace, which knitting gives me, so I began knitting a child’s hat.

‘What has this to do with angels?’ I hear you mutter. The yarn I used was a similar shade to some decorations the crafter had brought to show us. It was lustrous. I thought, ‘This would make an angel’.

During the night in a half-awake state I formed an idea of how to knit an angel.

Pattern for an angel

The angel I made

Materials:

Oddments of double knitting yarn in colours suitable for angel and hair. Wool or embroidery thread for eyes and mouth. 1 pair 3.75mm knitting needles. Safety pin. Tapestry or darning needle. Small amount of toy stuffing. Crochet hook.

Skirt, body and head knitted in one piece

Cast on 32 sts using DK yarn and 3.75mm knitting needles.

Knit 6 rows.

Stocking stitch 8 rows.

Next row: (K.14, k 2 tog.) twice. 30sts.

Continuing in stocking stitch work 3 rows.

Next row (K 13, k.2.tog.) twice. 28 sts.

Continue decreasing 2 sts every 2 rows until 16 sts. remain.

Work 15 rows for the body.

*Next row: Cast off two sts. k. until 8 sts remain. Turn.

Next row: Cast off two sts. p. to end. **

Cut yarn and leave 4 sts on a safety pin.

Rejoin yarn to LHS of work.

Work from * to **.

Transfer sts. from safety pin to the empty knitting needle and purl across them.

Change colour here for the head if required.

Work 8 rows on the 8 sts..

Cut the yarn leaving a long length for making up.

Using a tapestry needle or darning needle draw the thread through the 8 stitches and secure firmly.

Arms (Knit 2)

Cast on 6 sts and work 28 rows in stocking stitch.

Cast off.

To make up

Angel with hanging cord and harp

Sew eyes and mouth on face (I did mine after stuffing the head, which was not easy!)

Join side of head and stuff it firmly with polyester toy stuffing.

Stitch around base of head to gather for neck.

Join shoulder seams and side seam of body.

Stuff body.

Stitch back and front of body together at top of skirt to secure stuffing. (I used running stitch going round twice to give the impression of back stitch.)

Fold arms in two lengthwise and join seams, gathering ends slightly. Attach to body at shoulder.

Hair

How you make the hair is open to your imagination.

I crocheted a solid base for the hair using a contrasting yarn. Then I looked up how to make looped fur in a crochet book. I worked some loops by winding the yarn twice round my finger and the crochet hook and drawing the yarn through the loops and securing them to the base with a slip stitch.

Attach hair to head.

Wings

Draw the shape of one wing on stiff paper such as a used envelope and cut it out. Place the centre line of the pattern to the fold in a piece of felt and cut around the pattern.

Sew wings to body along the centre line.

Hanging cord

Crochet a chain to the desired length and attach firmly to head.

Harp

I made the harp from part of a hat from a Christmas cracker. I stitched dark grey thread for the strings. The harp is stitched to the two hands and the body of the angel.

How did your angel turn out? Mine measures 8 inches in height from the hem of the skirt to the top of the unruly mop of hair.

Changes to my blogging and social media habits

While I have been spending more time at home, I have perhaps also spent more time reading and writing blogs and scrolling through Facebook and Twitter.

I have noticed some changes in the blogosphere, some of which I had noticed when they happened and others for which I missed the announcements. In the past I have taken part in challenges set by WordPress’ Daily Post. These stopped some time ago. The UK Blog Awards, which I entered in 2014 ceased after a few years. Only recently I discovered that the post40bloggers, which featured posts from older bloggers no longer has a website. The Blogging from A to Z Challenge continues each April. On the official challenge website there were a number of posts about blogging and its future. In part those posts have helped me decide to write this post.

Another blogging group on which Sue’s Trifles is listed is Bible Gateway’s blogger grid. The badge in the sidebar or below the post, depending on the device used, is a link.

My blogging habits have changed recently. After the Daily Post stopped issuing a weekly photo challenge I reverted to posting once a week on Sue’s words and pictures. This year I decided to join in with Cee Neuner’s On the Hunt for Joy photo challenge. This is also a weekly challenge. I have been posting my response to it midweek as well as a post on Saturday. My Saturday posts have become rather parochial since lockdown began in March, but I am hoping this will not continue indefinitely.

Here on Sue’s Trifles I took a month off from book reviews and craft posts and an occasional post about blogging in order to complete the A to Z Challenge. Normal service is now resumed.

Another challenge I have been taking part in is Linda Kruschke’s Paint Chip Poetry Challenge. This is a weekly challenge issued on Fridays. There is a topic and a number of words or phrases from those paint colour sample sheets found in good hardware stores. The challenge is to incorporate a certain number of these into a poem and share it either in the comments or on one’s blog. I have been sharing mine in the comments, but have decided to gather them together on a page on this blog.

I have also entered several of Helen Yendell’s writing competitions, which also involve including words she provides. All these help me improve my writing skills. Reading the work of other writers in response to the challenges also helps.

Over on Twitter I have been a regular participant in #wildflowerhour on a Sunday evening (8pm London time). I have decided to take a break. This is to free up some time to work on a writing project. I have learned a great deal about the wild flowers that grow locally, but I have found that there is far more to recognising plants than just being able to name them: there are different kinds of speedwells, vetches, scabiouses and more. I forget some of them from one year to the next and have to learn them again! A break should be good for me.

For the followers, who are more interested in craft than writing, I am including a photo of a small blanket I have made from my friends’ left-over yarn. It is going to a new arrival in their family.

Today (21 May 2020) is Ascension Day. It is the day when we remember that Jesus Christ returned to heaven. Luke 24:50-53

This was necessary for the Holy Spirit to be sent to Jesus’ followers. Acts 2

A Twiddlemuff

I had some novelty yarn (Rico Design creative micro DK) waiting for a project. The idea of knitting a twiddlemuff for a dementia sufferer appealed to me, so I downloaded a pattern from Knit for Peace

The pattern allows for individual interpretation. Beginners may knit a straight piece of fabric and decorate it. I chose to use a variety of stitch patterns to give some interesting textures for the recipient to feel.

The photos tell the story.

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For the crocheted motifs I used two strands of fine acrylic yarn intended for machine knitting.

Chain six and join with a slip stitch.

Next round: 12 trebles into the ring. (UK terminology)

Next round: (1 treble, 1 double treble, 1 treble) into 1^st treble, slip stitch into next treble. Repeat 5 times. Fasten off.

Have you heard of twiddlemuffs before?