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Butterflies and Caterpillars

Here is a smattering of the bugs I made for the Palmetto Tatters Butterfly project. I made several variations of each kind, here are the proportions I ended up liking best when all was said and done.

For all of the patterns on this page - is a picot, -- is a longer picot, and p is a tiny picot for joining.

SCMR Butterfly

Burgundy bug at upper left (size 20 Opera)
SCMR instructions from the Shuttle Brothers
For these I wind a shuttle full and pull of half a foot or so of thread to finger-tat the chain parts of the SCMR. The shuttle makes all of the rings. start SCMR [ch 1
R 10-1--1-9 p 3
ch 3
R 3+5-7
ch 4-4
R 7-5 p 3
ch 3
R 3+9-1--1-10
ch 1] close SCMR
Tie ends and cut to form antennæ.
Variant:
Brown bug at center bottom (size 12 Finca perle cotton), black and red bugs at center right
Start and end the SCMR with 3 sts instead of 1. After closing the SCMR make a split ring of 5/5 for the head, then tie and cut ends to form antennæ.

Simple 4-ring butterfly

Pink bugs (size 10 Manuela) and variegated red bug at upper right (size 20 Flora)
R 9-1--1-7 p 3
R 3+4-7
R 7-4 p 3
R 3+7-1--1-9
Tie ends in a reef knot twice (which makes a head), cut to form antennæ.
Variant:
Variegated blue bug in center (size 10 Manuela)
Add beads, this requires a dozen beads:
R 9 b 1<3b>1b7 p 3
R 3+4 b 7
R 7 b 4 p 3
R 3+7 b 1<3b>1 b 9
Variant:
Burgundy bug in center (Opera again)
String 16 beads, work as above but slide a bead up from the shuttle thread at <3b> on large wings and b on small wings (these are what Nina Libin calls "down beads").

Caterpillar

Shown in size 8 Finca perle cotton in blue and variegated green and size 20 Flora in plain green.
For these I wind a shuttle full, string beads for the left eyes, and pull out an arm's length to finger tat the unflipped side of the split rings. You want large beads to give a bug-eyed look, for size 10 thread or size 8 perle cotton I use size 6 seed beads, for size 20 thread I use size 8 seed beads. Be sure to slide the bead for the eye up onto the last ring, I string a single bead for the right-hand eye onto the free thread as I get to the stitch that holds it in place.
R 3-7-3
SR 3-3/3-3 repeat to desired length
(do at least 5 repeats for a good-sized bug. I work until there's just enough free thread left to do the final ring)
Head: SR 5 b 2/5 b 2
Tie & trim ends for antennæ.
Variant:
Blue caterpillar
Body is same, head is SR 3-3 b 1/3-3 b 1
Variant:
Not pictured because I haven't tried it yet!
For a fuzzy caterpillar, put a small picot after every DS. Where a picot is marked in the pattern, make an extra-long picot (half an inch?). Cutting the ends off of the extra-long picots might also make them look more like legs.