Have you ever observed the beautiful butterflies sweep and skim across your flowering shrubbery? Like living fairies, they flit and flutter about, flapping their silky, showy wings! The vulnerable butterflies frequently use their wings as a defensive device, folding them to blend into the background or show their spectrum of striking shades and puzzling patterns to scare off predators. When creating your beguiling butterflies, give them a chance to plop down to rest their wonderful wings! So, don’t forget to knit the flamboyant firewheel flower!

There are three, 9 cm butterflies included in this pattern: the tiger-mimic queen, spicebush swallowtail, red-spotted purple and you’ll find the pattern for the firewheel flower at the end. Each butterfly is a small project to be done in an evening or so, in scraps of yarn you have lying around!
They were knitted flat (with some intarsia color work) on 1.25 mm double pointed needles in a lace-gauged yarn, but can also be done in a heavier yarn and will then turn out slightly larger.

The butterflies can be attached to just about anything, as an embellishment. Or, start your own butterfly collection - lepidopterarium with a fancy word – as there are more patterns available!

Have a glo-wing, flo-wing knit! Viv