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Fox Paws project shown above. Photo © cdncarol.
Fox Paws by Xandy Peters is one of those knitting designs that can make you stop and wonder: how were those extraordinary waves of color created?
Although the finished fabric looks like highly complex colorwork, the secret is an unusual technique known as stacked stitches. Dramatic increases and decreases bend ordinary knitted stripes into the distinctive interlocking shapes that give Fox Paws its name.
This guide introduces the construction and techniques behind Fox Paws, explains what makes stacked stitches unusual, and points you to Xandy Peters' official learning resources if you want to practice the technique before beginning the full wrap.
The defining feature of Fox Paws is its extraordinary wavy striped motif.
The shapes resemble rows of interlocking fox feet, but they are not created with conventional stranded colorwork or intarsia.
Instead, Xandy Peters manipulates ordinary knitted stripes using concentrated increases and decreases. These techniques force sections of the rows to expand and contract dramatically, bending the stripes into waves.
The result looks much more complicated than the basic idea behind it: shape the fabric itself, and the stripes follow that shape.
Stacked stitches are unusual increases and decreases worked repeatedly into the same area of the knitting.
Instead of making a single increase or decrease and continuing across the row, stitches can be slipped back to the left needle and worked again. Repeating this process builds a concentrated stack of shaping.
In Fox Paws, these dramatic changes in stitch count are used to bend rows of garter stitch into the characteristic peaks, valleys and interlocking motifs.
A normal knitting decrease may reduce the stitch count by one or two stitches. A stacked decrease takes the concept considerably further.
Xandy Peters describes stacked decreases as multiple decreases worked on top of one another. Stitches are worked together, selected stitches are slipped back to the left needle, and another decrease is worked through the same area.
This creates a strong inward pull in the fabric and helps form the deep valleys seen in stacked-stitch designs.
If this technique is new to you, practicing it separately before starting Fox Paws can make the full project much easier to understand.
Xandy Peters provides an official free tutorial explaining stacked decreases, including a small practice swatch and video demonstration.
Learn Stacked Decreases with Xandy Peters →
The opposite side of the technique is the stacked increase.
Instead of rapidly removing stitches, stacked increases create many stitches in a concentrated area. Working increases and decreases in carefully positioned groups allows the knitted stripes to move sharply up and down across the fabric.
One of the techniques associated with Xandy Peters' stacked-stitch work is KYOK — knit, yarn over, knit — which creates multiple stitches from one stitch before the stacking process continues.
You do not need to begin with the full Fox Paws wrap to learn the increase technique.
Xandy Peters offers a free Star Pattern specifically designed as a way to practice stacked increases.
It is a much smaller project and can help you understand how the technique behaves before committing to more than a thousand yards of fingering-weight yarn.
Practice Stacked Increases with the Free Star Pattern →
One of the most fascinating aspects of Fox Paws is that the dramatic multicolored fabric does not require traditional stranded knitting or intarsia.
You work the stripes one color at a time.
The extraordinary shapes appear because the stacked increases and decreases physically distort those stripes into extreme waves.
This means you do not have to carry several colors simultaneously across the row or manage intarsia bobbins to create the signature motif.
The original sample uses five colors, rotating them through the repeats to create the distinctive layered appearance.
The suggested yarn is Knit Picks Palette, a fingering-weight wool yarn.
The original color arrangement uses approximately one 50 g skein of each of five colors.
However, the designer notes that Fox Paws can be worked with two or more colors, giving knitters considerable freedom to develop their own stripe sequence.
Color choice has an unusually strong influence on the appearance of this project because the entire motif is built from stripes.
Before buying yarn, consider:
High contrast can emphasize the unusual geometry, while closer values can produce a softer and more blended effect.
A simple way to judge contrast is to photograph your yarn choices and temporarily view the image in grayscale.
Colors that look very different to the eye can sometimes have nearly identical values. If they merge together in grayscale, the boundaries between some of your Fox Paws stripes may appear less distinct.
That is not necessarily wrong—it simply produces a different visual effect.
Fox Paws is designed for fingering-weight yarn.
The original pattern calls for approximately 1,100–1,300 yards (1,006–1,189 m) in total.
Because the wrap relies so heavily on stitch definition and color interaction, yarn choice can influence both the appearance of the motif and the behavior of the finished fabric.
The published recommendation is a US 6 / 4 mm circular needle, or the needle size necessary to obtain gauge.
Although Fox Paws is worked flat, a circular needle is practical for holding the width of the project and distributing the weight of the growing wrap.
The designer specifies gauge in the Fox Paws motif rather than using only a conventional stockinette gauge.
Because stacked stitches dramatically alter the geometry of the fabric, checking the pattern's specified motif gauge is more meaningful than assuming a standard fingering-weight gauge.
Swatching also gives you a valuable opportunity to practice the unusual increases and decreases before beginning the full project.
The published finished size is approximately 70 inches long × 20 inches wide (157 × 43 cm).
This produces a generous rectangular wrap that can be worn across the shoulders or styled more like a large scarf.
The official pattern is rated intermediate, but the designer specifically recommends it for adventurous knitters because it contains unusual increases and decreases.
The challenge is not conventional stranded colorwork. Instead, it is learning the logic of stacked stitches and keeping the stitch count accurate while large increases and decreases are being worked.
An adventurous beginner who is already confident reading patterns and working basic increases and decreases may prefer to practice stacked stitches separately before attempting the full wrap.
Before beginning Fox Paws, it helps to be comfortable with:
You do not need previous experience with traditional stranded colorwork to understand the color effect used in Fox Paws.
Accurate stitch counts are particularly important with stacked-stitch knitting.
Large increases and decreases mean that one missed step can affect the geometry of the motif much more dramatically than a small mistake in ordinary garter stitch.
Check your stitch count regularly instead of waiting until several rows later to discover that something has gone wrong.
Stitch markers can make a complex-looking row easier to manage by dividing it into smaller logical sections.
Checking each repeat as you finish it can help identify an error while you are still close to the place where it occurred.
This is often much easier than trying to diagnose a stitch-count problem after completing an entire long row.
Some of the stacked decreases require several stitches to be worked together.
A needle with a smooth surface and a useful tip can make these maneuvers easier than a particularly blunt or sticky needle.
The best choice still depends on your yarn and knitting tension, so use a needle that gives you control without making the multi-stitch decreases unnecessarily difficult.
Very tight tension can make unusual multi-stitch increases and decreases considerably harder to work.
If you normally knit tightly, pay attention to the amount of room available when the pattern asks you to manipulate several stitches in the same area.
Practicing on a small swatch first is much easier than discovering a tension problem halfway through the full wrap.
A striped five-color project can potentially create many yarn ends.
Xandy Peters has developed guidance for weaving in ends as the project progresses, reducing the amount of finishing waiting at the end of the wrap.
This can be especially useful for Fox Paws because frequent color changes are an important part of the design.
Blocking helps the distinctive stacked-stitch shapes settle into their finished form.
The official materials include pins and a steamer for blocking, although the exact method you use should always be appropriate for your chosen yarn fiber.
Follow the yarn manufacturer's care instructions and the designer's finishing guidance rather than applying excessive heat or stretching.
Fox Paws is a particularly good example of a project where a practice swatch has value beyond simply checking gauge.
Use your swatch to learn:
Once the movements begin to feel familiar, the full Fox Paws pattern becomes much easier to approach confidently.
Important: Fox Paws itself should not be confused with the free tutorials used to teach its techniques.
Xandy Peters provides free educational resources for learning stacked increases and stacked decreases, but the complete Fox Paws knitting pattern is a paid pattern.
Older Amazing Knitting labeling that placed this page under “Free Knitting Pattern” should therefore not be interpreted as meaning that the complete Fox Paws pattern is free.
The complete pattern is available directly from Xandy Peters.
Buying through the designer's official website gives you the current authorized pattern and supports the designer who created the stacked-stitch design.
Get the Official Fox Paws Pattern →
If you are not ready to begin Fox Paws yet, start with Xandy Peters' free learning resources.
Fox Paws and its pattern instructions are © Xandy Peters. Amazing Knitting does not reproduce the copyrighted Fox Paws pattern. This page is an independent guide to the design and the techniques used in it. Pattern availability and pricing are determined by the designer.
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