The Mystery

So as some, but not all of you know, I'm a member of a Web site called Ravelry, which is a community site for fiber artists. So a fellow knitter on the site, used this picture as her avatar (or Ravatar, as they're called on there):

For the longest time, I had no clue what the thing was... I kept trying to figure it out without having to be rude and actually say, "OK, what the hell is that??"
I was always thinking it was a butterfly dragging it's caterpillar body behind it. This always seemed sort of odd and creepy to me but hey, my avatar was a cat lying in a bath tub, who am I to judge? But it also seemed to not make sense because you'll never actually see a butterfly dragging around it's caterpillar body behind it... So I kept thinking and thinking. I tried those tricks you hear when you're looking at those stupid magic eye pictures of relaxing your eyes... all I got was a headache.
Finally, I just had to come out and be rude... so I asked... what the hell is that thing?? She was more than happy to explain. But now, I'm a little bummed that she did because now, knowing what it really is, I can't see what I used to think it is so it makes me wonder if I was being insane thinking that's what it was.
I know you're all wondering why I'm dancing around saying what the picture actually is. And that's because I'm not going to. I want to hear other thoughts on what it is. I want to know I'm not the only one who couldn't figure it out. So post a comment. Tell me what you think it is. In another post soon, I'll tell you who's correct :)