Figured I may as well say, powerline isn't necessary to install; you need only the fonts, though I am not sure how to get awesome-patched working in PL9K else I would had written a complete and in-depth guide about it. Shell stuff is sort of outside my field, scope and pay grade. 
(That, and awesome-fontconfig works wonders for me. And since shell stuff is so personal, I can't even begin to conceive of all the possible means and uses of PL9K and ZSH, especially when we get Antigen, OMZ and Prezto into the mix.)