Crocheting: The Granny Square

A lot of you may already have heard of the granny square pattern. But for those who haven't, and for the beginner, I am going to describe it to you so you can make your own granny squares, or a big granny square blanket. This is a favorite among many crocheters.

What you will need:

Crochet hook of your desired size

Yarn, color and brand of your choice

Scissors

To begin, we will chain five. Then you hold your stitches, and take your hook, and grab the yarn from behind, and take it and pull it through the last stitch, and chain up three. This is your beginning circle.

Now we will double crochet two, brining the stitches, through the hole that you are holding. The hole you are holding is the circle I mentioned earlier. You are not crocheting within the chain, you are going through it. It will now look as though you have three double crochets, because your chain three up stitch, is there to pretend to be a double crochet. Next you chain one, then you double crochet three again, making them also going around the loop hole from the beginning. Chain one again, and then double crochet three again. Now you have three double crochet clusters. Again, we double crochet three, and then chain one. Now there are four. We take then chain one, and grab the yarn, come up from behind the first cluster, and your last chain, and pull the yarn through, thus connecting it. It somewhat should look like a small circle now, not yet a square.

Now we chain three, this is going to be our up stitch, that pretends to be a double crochet. With it, we crochet two more double crochets that are going into the gap of your single crochet from the row below it. Chain one, and then in the next hole where a chain stitch is below, we will be making another set of three double crochets. After each double crochet, is a chain, each and every time. Soon, you will see it taking shape of a small square. As you are doing this, and as you go on, you will see where the corners are or need to be. The corner will be a chain stitch, and you will put your three double crochet clusters in it, and also do your chain stitch, and then thee more double crochet clusters. All of this will be in the one chain stitch, but that is because that is your corner.

The choice of the size of your square is yours. You can make several squares, and stitch them together making a granny square blanket, and have them in one color, or many. Or you can make it one big square and keep going and going. The photo I will provide you with this pattern, will be one huge granny square blanket.

As I have explained in my other patterns, you can do a little of this and that techniques to make your things original. This can happen once you are comfortable, and feel that you can do a little trick here and there. I have found that when doing granny square patterns, I get bored. I will do a row solid from time to time. But you do not have to, or you can make the entire blanket a solid square if you want to.

Doing a solid granny square will only require a chain stitch in the corner, and double crocheting in the stitch below, rather then through the circle, or chain stitches below. There are no clusters, either. It will just be double crochet, one stitch at a time.

Once you have concluded your blanket, you can choose to do a border, or not too. I like to make a solid double crochet final border, and then sometimes I like to do, what looks like a loose lace border. To do the lace border, you will be doing eight chain stitches, then a single crochet to grasp hold to your blanket within the forth stitch. Chain eight again, then a single crochet in the fourth stitch. For my borders I usually like a universal matching color to my blanket, or a variegated color.

Disclaimer: This is my first time WRITING about crochet. I did NOT copy it from a pattern book, I wouldn't even KNOW where to find it in a pattern book. But I do want you to know, I did not use slang or abbreviations, and I am in no way shape or form claiming to be perfect. If there is in fact a mistake in these words, please feel free to contact me on a professional basis, rather then write derogatory comments in the comments section. Writing crochet, is not easy at all! Thank you, and I hope you have enjoyed this pattern!