That’s right, it’s my 3rd commissioned design – the Chameleon!

Thank you to my chameleon pledgers – this design was especially fun for me, as I could run out into the garden to consult with my ‘pet’ (actually wild) chameleon, Kermit, whenever I had a shape or proportion question 😀

Chameleons are probably the most fascinating of lizards because of their unique physiological adaptations. Here are a few of the most interesting chameleon facts for you!

Chameleon Fun Facts

• There are well over 150 species of chameleon, ranging from under 1″ to 30″ in length.
• Most chameleons are found in Africa and Madagascar.
• A chameleon shoots its amazingly long tongue at its insect prey. The tongue is as long as its body and has a suction cup on the end to capture the insect.
• Chameleons move slowly for camouflage, with a swaying motion like a leaf blowing in the breeze.
• Chameleon colour changes are usually due to stress or other emotions, not for camouflage as popularly believed.

I can attest that chameleons are very hard to spot if they want to stay hidden! I’ve spent hours playing ‘where’s Kermy’ in my garden, and sometimes I find him on a branch I swear was empty moments before 😀

Kermy is a Cape Dwarf Chameleon, and he obviously influenced my design decisions – especially with the bright green colour – but my aim was to create the archetypal chameleon without getting too fussy with excessive details. So here are the factors I needed to build into my design:

• Chameleons have large eyes, but their eyelids are fused together leaving only a small opening for them to see through. Each eye can swivel independently through 180° so chameleons can hunt and look for predators in all directions simultaneously.
• Chameleons have amazing Y-shaped feet to grip onto branches. (They actually still have 5 toes on each foot: the toes are just joined together into forward- and backward-pointing groups.)
• A chameleon’s prehensile tail can be held straight out for balance, curled around a branch for stability when climbing, or coiled tightly when asleep.

Some species have large horns, spines, crests or stripes, so, if you’re feeling especially creative and want to make a different type of chameleon, you could crochet extra pieces and add them. Of course, chameleons are found in almost every colour: red, blue, yellow, brown, orange; the easiest modification would just be to make one in a different colour – or wouldn’t a chameleon look amazing crocheted in a variegated yarn?

This design does use pipe cleaners for poseability, so please, as always, be sensible and omit the wires from a toy for babies or young children. (I give tips in the pattern for how to make your chameleon still look good if you choose to omit the wires.)

(A little note about my Commissions process – it’s still going strong – in fact, my 4th and 5th commissions were fully pledged before I even had a chance to complete this one! I didn’t anticipate this level of demand when I set up the commissions process, so I’ll be making some more changes later today or tomorrow – see my next blog post for details.)

With my arm for scale – he’s about 8″ long with his tail fully coiled up!

If you pledged towards the commission, you should have already received your copy of the pattern. Otherwise, if you’d like to make a chameleon of your own – or a whole troop in different colours – you can now pick up the Chameleon crochet pattern from the PlanetJune shop! I hope you like it 🙂

If you’re not quite ready to buy though, how about queuing Chameleon on ravelry so you don’t forget about it?