This week I finally completed my series of Seasonal Foxes! The first one (Sedge) was made back in 2012, with the next two (Morelle and Shiver) made within the following 4 years. I call the latest one Lush.

The first fox, Sedge, was based off of a kitsune casting an illusion to disguise itself – usually this is depicted with a fox putting a leaf on its head.

Originally, I wanted to make the whole body shrouded in leaves, but I ended up making a mini cape instead. It was probably for the best, because I wouldn’t have been able to see the body with a full shroud.

Once I made Sedge, I felt like it could belong to a series of foxes. Eventually I came up with the four seasons as a theme; the fall was represented with a larger leaf cloak on Morelle, while winter (Shiver) was depicted with bare twigs sticking out of the snow.

I found that designing a spring version was more difficult than I expected. I didn’t want spring to be depicted with just flowers, because the other seasonal foxes were tied to either tree leaves or tree branches. I left the spring theme alone for a few more years, until just a couple weeks ago.

I eventually came up with a brown soil – like base and some blooming branches. The wreath of flowers and leaves sort of came in naturally after adding on the branches in the design. I used my old pattern zine to recreate the base, where funnily enough, I rediscovered some of my favourite crochet techniques. I also did not follow using the correct hook size, making this fox smaller than the others.

I had a lot of fun making the flowers and leaves for Lush – on the branches, I made tiny flowers by chaining two crochets and then crocheting about five single crochets into the one available chain. I love how from afar the tiny flowers look like lumps, but then up close, they seem to have a petal-like appearance.

I applied a similar concept for the larger light pink flowers – I chained about eight crochets and alternated between single crochets, half-double crochets, and double crochets. The piece naturally curled up to form a rose-like shape. The darker pink flowers were made with chaining four crochets and single crocheting three crochets, followed with repetition of the pattern at least 5 times to form the petals.

After fastening the flowers together, more details were added to make a wreath. A lot of end yarn pieces were tucked away at the back, so that they could be stitched into the wreath with more green yarn.

Again, I didn’t realize how much time it took to make all the details! Overall, this fox looks pretty simple, but each small detail takes at least a few minutes to complete; about 40 separate pieces make up the wreath and the branches, which explains why it took about 6 hours to complete. I guess I have forgotten how much free time I used to have when I was a university student.

Here’s the final result:

So there I have it, all four seasonal foxes completed! It was a vision I had back in 2012, and I have finally finished it after 7 years. Thanks for reading!