Introduction

The granny square is a very important and versatile crochet piece. There are many variations of it, but in the tutorial, I will concentrate on the most basic one. In other articles, I will show you how to make other variations.

I will show you everything you need to know to make it, aside from how to hold your hook, your yarn and how to chain.

If you only want the granny square part of this tutorial, you can jump to : The Granny Square.

The Components of the Basic Granny Square

The Granny Square is made of a few basic stitches and concepts, they are as follows:

• Magic ring
• Doublet crochet (dc)
• Slip stitch (sl st)
• Chain(s) (ch)

These are the basics: four simple techniques.

The hardest one, in my opinion, is the magic ring, in this tutorial, I will show you quickly how I like to make my magic ring, but for a full a detailed and complete explanation on the technique I use, you can go to this tutorial, which also covers some tips when using chenille yarn.

I will start by showing you how to make a double crochet.

The Double Crochet

The double crochet is the most used stitch in the basic Granny Square. I will show you the steps, but first, we need to make a chain, I will make a chain of 13. We will be making our first double crochet (dc) in the fourth chain from the hook.

1. YO and go through the stitch (or chain in our case).
   
2. YO, pull through one loop. (3 loops on the hook)
   
3. YO, pull through two loops. (2 loops on the hook)
   
4. YO, pull through two loop.
   

You can practice by finishing making you row in the chain, so 10 dc in total.

The slip stitch

The slip stitch is used to join our rounds, but we can still practice it like the double crochet. For this, I will start by making a chain of 11. We will make our first slip stitch (sl st) in the second chain from the hook.

1. Put the hook through the stitch (or chain in our case).
   
2. YO pull through two loops.
   

It can be hard sometimes to pull through both loops at the same time, so I recommend pulling through one, then repositioning your hook and pulling through the other loop.

Like the double crochet, you can practice this stitch by finishing the row.

The Magic Ring

For a more detailed explanation on the magic ring, you can refer to this tutorial on my blog, but if you only want the quick explanation, here is it:

1. Wrap the yarn around two of your fingers three times so that there are three loops around your fingers making sure that the yarn tail is on the right.
   
2. Put the hook face down beneath the first two loops and in front of the last one.
   
   
   
3. Pull the last loop under the first two loops.
   
   
4. Make the hook face up twisting the loop that is now on it.
   
   
5. Take the left strand with your thumb.
   
   
6. Yarn over and pull through to make a chain.
   

You are now ready to start making the basic Granny Square!

The Granny Square

Terminology

Notes

The ch 3 at the beginning of the rounds count as a double crochet.

When I refer to the ch-sp or sp , I mean the space created by the chain or the chain between the stitches, so we need to go around it not through it. These images show the spaces I am talking about:

For this tutorial, I will only do 4 rounds, but I will explain the logic to do as many round as you want.

Steps

The first thing to do is the magic ring.

R1: ch 3, 2 dc, ch 1, cluster, ch 1, cluster, ch 1, cluster, ch1, close the magic ring, sl st into the top of the starting ch 3.

Where to make the slip stitch (top of the starting chain 3), you should see two loops on your hook when going through it, like in the second image:

The images below show you where to do the first cluster for round 2.

R2: ch 3, 2 dc in the first ch-sp (the one right below your ch 3), (cluster in the next ch-sp, ch 1, cluster in the same ch-sp)x3, cluster in the next ch-sp (the first on you went through) ch 1, sl st into the top of the starting ch 3.

R3: ch 3, 2 dc in the first ch-sp, cluster in the next sp, (cluster in the next ch-sp, ch 1, cluster in the same ch-sp, 3 dc in the next sp)x3, cluster in the next ch-sp, ch1, sl st into the top of the starting ch 3.

R4: ch 3, 2 dc in the first ch-sp, ch 1, cluster in the next two sp, (cluster in the next ch-sp, ch 1, cluster in the same ch-sp, cluster in the next two sp)x3, cluster in the next ch-sp, ch1, cut the yarn and pull it through.

You might have noticed a pattern. Each round starts by a ch3 and two clusters in the first corner, then each corner gets two clusters and each space on the edge of the square get one. This will be the same if you do more rows. Using this pattern, you can add as many rounds as you’d like!

We will now do an invisible join into the starting ch 3. To do this, put the yarn tail on your needle and go through the top of the ch 3 space front to back. Then go through the last ch 1 you made, once again front to back. This will imitate a regular stitch and make it more seamless.

Now we only need to weave in the yarn tails!

You are done with the basic Granny Square! The next two sections will cover how to change colors and how to avoid your square from spiralling.

Changing colors

Changing is an important part for creating beautiful and unique Granny Squares. It is usually done at the beginning of a round, so this is what I am going to show you here.

1. In the last round before the color change, cut the yarn after joining with the sl st, pull it through and pull on it to secure it.
   
2. Turn you square around to that the wrong side of the last round is facing you.
   
3. Make a slipknot with the new color and place it on you hook.
   
4. Go through a corner of the square (not the one where you joined the last round) and make a sl st.
   
5. ch 3 and do your round as you usually would.
   

One thing to note is that when I am working in the corner where I joined the last round, I crochet over the tail and the cut it, so I don’t have to weave it in later.

Spiral

When you crochet a large Granny Square, you can notice that it starts to spiral a little bit. There is nothing wrong with that, but I personally try to avoid this effect.

To do so after a couple of rounds (I usually do two or three), cut the yarn, turn around the square and join your yarn to a corner as you would a color change.

This is the reason I turn it around when making a color change, you could skip this step if the spiral does not bother you when making your color changes.

Final Word

I hope you learned something in this tutorial, if anything was not clear enough, you can always reach out to me so I can clarify some points!

For example, you could make a couple of square and create a tote bag by joining the squares to get something like this:

Or make a lot of the and create your own blanket!

The Granny Square is a very useful technique to learn, because it can be used in a lot of projects and gives space for a lot of creativity. I can’t wait to see what you come up with!

If you liked this tutorial, you can always show your support by following me on Instagram @filmignoncrochet!