Butterflies

These little butterflies are great for scrapbooking pages or as an applique for hats, sweaters, jeans. These originally were inspired by a little girl's clippy that my sister found. Each one doesn't use much of the crochet thread, so it is perfect for using up left-over thread from another project.

These patterns are a series of little patterns that I wrote down when I made some little appliques for my sister's birthday. The first pattern was for little stars and the entire gift, of course, was blogged as well.

Abbreviations:

ch	Chain
dc	Double Crochet
hdc	Half-double Crochet
sc	Single Crochet
sl st	Slip Stitch
sp	space

Butterfly
Each wing of the butterfly is made up of a small loop and a larger loop. The pattern starts with the small loop of of both wings and then moves to the larger loop of the wings. Even on round 3, the bottom parts of the wing are done before the top.

Using a size 7 hook (1.65 mm):

Round 1 (WS): [ch 5, join in 1st ch] twice, [ch 10, join in 1st ch] twice. 2 small loops and 2 larger loops made.
Round 2 (WS): ch 1, [8 sc in the ch 5 sp, sc in the first ch of round 1] twice, [16sc in ch 10 sp, sc in first ch of round 10 twice, join with sl st to first sc. Cut thread.
Round 3 (RS): turn the butterfly over and with a different color start in the bottom part of the right wing [sc in the first 8 sc of round 2, sc in the first ch of round 1] twice, [sc in next 7 sc, 2dc in next sc, 2 dc in next sc, sc in next 7 sc] twice, join with sl st with the first sc in the row, bind off.

With black crochet thread and leaving extra at the top to make the antenna, make the butterfly body by wrapping wings placing one large and one small loop on each side. Tie both ends together and cut the antenna so that they are the same length.

Caterpillar
Row 1: leaving enough of a tail to be an antenna, ch 11
Row 2: turn, hdc in 3nd loop from the hook and in each ch from Row 1. Bind off and cut thread. Tie the tail from row 1 with the end from row 2 and cut both end so that they are the same length.

They fit perfectly on the page! Jill has asked for 100 more. Yikes. I'm sure I'll come up with a couple different variations for those 100 (and this last comment in no way should be construed to mean that I'll make these said butterflies for Christmas gifts, so no one - and you know who you are - should be tempted to rig the Christmas gift exchange name drawing :)

I only post patterns that I have personally created. By all means, use them to make anything for yourself, your bff, your Aunt Clara (she did make you that nice bunny suit), the neighbor's dog or to line the bottom of your bird's cage. That's why I posted them. And since it never hurts to ask first, please shoot me an email, leave me a comment, or mail me a nice letter (bonus points will be awarded for pretty stationary, unique-yet-readable fonts, and complements of my children or pets) before using of any of my patterns for professional use. All this really means: don't use my work to make money without first asking me. I don't bite and I'm up-to-date with my rabies shots, so send that email on over and ask already.

Copyright 2008

What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly.
Richard Bach from thinkexists.com