Caterpillar, Chrysallis, Butterfly

My original Monarch Caterpillar knitting pattern, has been worrying me. It has been downloaded a lot of times, but no one has knitted it. (Hubby corrects me, and says that it may have been knitted plenty of times, but no one has posted a project.)

I think the problem may be that as it was knitted on 4 needles, and with not many stitches, this is a fiddly. It was my very first pattern on ravelry. So I have decided to do a brand new version. This is a bit of a compromise, as it is knitted flat, which makes the knitting much easier, but there is now one seam to sew. I don't want to make it too easy, so the feet are done with a row of french knots. You can see how to do these in the photo tutorial on my sidebar.

I have also added a tiny extra pattern, to make the missing link, a chrysallis. (Hubby adds that for completeness there should also be an egg and a larva pattern! Sigh.) I have no idea why anyone needs to knit a chrysallis, but I think together all three patterns could make a nice educational toy. 

I gave my original monarch butterfly and caterpillar to Caterpillar Class at my school. All the classes at my school are named after minibeasts. This year I work in Cricket Class, and I have been toying with the idea of knitting a cricket for them, but I think it will be a challenge with fiddly legs and wings.

I have not seen a chrysallis in real life, so have had to look at photographs very closely. The colour was a bit of a concern, as they seen to start off a very bright green with some yellow spots, but then before they hatch, change to a dark brown. 

So the new Monarch Caterpillar and Chrysallis are within one pattern, and I am going to try and link it to the Monarch Butterfly pattern, so if anyone fancies making all three they get a discount.