Where it all started - my first granny square

With just a few days to go until Granny Square Day 2025, I thought I'd drop in to share my granny square journey with you. Emma has already shown you her reworkings of Jane's very pretty 'A Flower for Alice' square, named after Jane's Great Grandmother and how bunches of sweet peas from her sister Jules have inspired her colour choices. 

I've been having a think back to when I learnt to crochet 8 or 9 years ago, and successfully completing a granny square seemed like the pinnacle of achievement and oh so exciting. So proud was I of that first square that I have always kept it in the box of samples I always take along when I teach beginners classes to show learners who are convinced they'll never be able to make one!  Here it is...

I'm fairly certain there were others that came before it that didn't have 4 corners and looked more like something the cat dragged in. They were pulled back fairly swiftly but this is the first one that seemed to have the right bits in the right places, more or less at least. I'm quite critical about it nowadays, the stitches are very uneven and a very expert eye could spot an extra stitch  and a missing chain here or there. However, at the time this was a huge achievement and brought with it an almost obsessive need to carry on crocheting! 

The next challenge after that square was the solid granny square and to this day it remains my favourite of the two basic squares. It also taught me a lot about crochet construction. I needed to understand that because there were more stitches along each of the four sides, effectively taking up space, the corners needed to have a reduced number of stitches in them so that the square didn't 'buckle'. I'm quite a 'technical' crocheter and it's important to me to understand the why of something as well as the how, so this knowledge has been useful, for example, when adding a border of my own design to a blanket and understanding that too many stitches will cause rippling. Here's one of my favourite solid granny squares from the current temperature blanket project. 

Certainly over the years since I'm been crocheting it seems like granny squares have grown hugely in popularity, particularly for garments and accessories. All the crochet magazines seem to feature at least one project using granny squares in every issue. I wonder if part of the appeal is the opportunity to play with colour so freely as well as the nature of construction i.e. putting smaller parts together feels less overwhelming than making larger pieces?

At Jane and Andy's 30th wedding anniversary party recently the table centrepieces were bowls of small balls of yarn, crochet hooks, scissors and darning needles, together with patterns for those who needed them. So many of the guests joined in to have a go at a square, from those with experience to those who had never even picked up a crochet hook before. It was great fun. You can see Emma & I below, proudly showing off our handiwork - I even sewed the ends in, I don't know what came over me! 

So fast forward to today and as part of our preparations for Granny Square Day 2025, Jane suggested that if we fancied we could have a go at designing a square ourselves. I had a ponder to myself and wondered if I could create a representation of a double chrysanthemum flower by using small loops of chains to create the petals. So here is 'Cassandra'. A little work on the design is still needed, particularly to refine the leaves, but as a first attempt I'm quite pleased with it! 

We're all looking forward to Granny Square Day on Friday. Do check out the Simply Crochet Magazine socials to join in the fun and there will be a new square to look forward to from Jane. Until then, enjoy your crochet!