Yarncrafting Costumes: Designing an Arctic Fox Headpiece

My knitted costuming adventures continue, this time with a ferociously cute flair! Foxes are dear to my heart, and snow white arctic foxes are so adorable! So with a “frozen forest” themed costume party on the horizon, I decided to knit an arctic fox head to wear as my headpiece.

Inspiration

Examining photos and drawings of foxes helped me determine the basic shape of the piece. For the simplest components possible to make up the fox head, I settled on a narrow tube (snout) connected to a sphere (head), with flat triangles (ears) attached to the sphere.

The Right Yarns

When knitting furry creatures, yarn choice is paramount. As with the bunny tail I designed, once again Romance saves the day! This yarn is indescribably soft – perfect for creating fluffy friends. Using two strands of Romance yarn in Silky White held together with one strand of Wool-Ease in White/Multi, I began working the snout on US 10½ needles. Starting with just six stitches and working in the round, I knitted the tube for the snout, while increasing a few stitches over several rounds. Then I increased at a more rapid rate to create the face, and worked the rest of the head as a standard sphere.

The ears were knitted flat as two small triangles. After stitching them to the head, I inserted jewelry wire around the edges to help the ears stand upright. For a touch of glow, I stitched a single mini LED light to the inside of each ear.

The fox’s features were embroidered using Wool-Ease in Black. I trimmed some of the fur around the snout and eyes so that the black features would be more visible (and not hidden by all the soft white fluff).

Wear It!

To make the fox head a wearable headpiece, I stitched the finished piece to a rubbery lace-look headband. This style continues to be my favorite for knitted headwear, as the headband has plenty of attachment points where I can securely anchor the headpiece.

As I often find, deadlines are a helpful motivator to combat what might otherwise be a glacial process. This project took only 10 days from start to finish! And my new foxy friend made quite the impression, lighting up the frozen forest party with incredibly soft charm!