How to Make a Granny Square

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A Granny Square is worked in rounds. Working in rounds is a little bit different from working in rows, though you use the same basic stitches for both. When I say "working in rounds" I am talking about where you start in the middle and your piece grows outward, getting larger, until it is the size you need. This is a very good method to use if you need a square to be a particular size or if you plan to use different colors (see the tutorial on Joining New Yarn/Changing Colors in Granny Squares) and have only a small amount of each. You can always adjust up or down with a granny. You can usually get within a half inch of the size you need and then add a round of single crochet to bring it up to size. Size may be important if you are making a square for a charity, for example, and it is to be joined with other squares of the same size.

Most grannies are worked on one side without turning. However, if you prefer a reversible granny, you CAN turn your work. I would first learn this basic method and then go to the bottom of the page.

We are going to learn how to make the basic granny square. There will be pictures of the different steps as we go along. If you do not know how to crochet at all, then you should first go to the Learning to Crochet pages. Some of the first steps (slip knot, foundation chain) are the same, however, and I am duplicating them here for your convenience.

Every piece of crochet begins with the slip knot and then a foundation chain. These are taught in other tutorials so I will not go over them again, due to space limitations.

Very briefly, to make the foundation chain, you put the slip knot on your hook, then holding the piece that hangs down from your hook with the thumb and middle finger (or forefinger if that is more comfortable) of your left hand, bring the yarn over the hook coming from the back, then pull the yarn through the loop on your hook. If you don't hold that piece, it may move as you're trying to pull your thread through, making it more difficult to complete your chain. If you have trouble, you might try turning your hook slightly downward to catch the yarn.

You have now made your first chain. Yay!
The chain should be about as large as the shank of your hook.

The yarn coming from the skein is laying over your left index finger (if you are right handed) in whatever position you find most comfortable and which provides the necessary even tension. Some people wind it around the little finger as well. You should do whatever works for you. This might change over time as you get more comfortable with the craft.

Here is a picture of a foundation chain consisting of 5 chains (Figure 2). This is what you will use for the granny square.

Okay, now that you've got your foundation chain, you need to make that foundation chain into a ring.

Figure 3 shows you where to insert your hook to do this and how to complete the circle. Place your hook into the first chain you made, right after the slip knot. Then YO (yarn over) and pull the yarn through the place where you've inserted your hook AND through the loop that is on your hook. This is a slip stitch. You will have a little hole in the middle of the circle you've just made. Congrats! Depending on what size hook you are using and what kind of yarn, your hole may be smaller or larger. You might have to wiggle your finger in the center if it's small, so you can see the center hole.

Next, chain 2 or 3 depending on which one brings your stitch up to the correct height (Fig. 4). If you find your chains are too high or there is too big a gap between your chain-3 and the next stitch, then you may need to chain 2. Whichever you decide to use be sure you do it the same way throughout your square. If you don't like your first effort, then rip and start again so they'll all be the same. Don't chain 2 on one round and chain 3 on the next. It would be preferable to do all the squares that are for a particular afghan the same as well, but at the very least, for each square.

Now yo, insert your hook in the center hole. (The hole will stretch as you go, though it may still be rather small, depending on what size hook you chose for the project.) Then work a double crochet around the foundation chain loop. (Note: If you want to, you can crochet over the loose strand dangling there. This is a good habit to get into for when you begin changing colors and will have a lot of ends to sew in.) This is the second dc of your first shell since the chain always counts as the first dc of each round. Note: A shell is a group of double crochets worked into the same space or stitch. For purposes of this tutorial, a shell is 3 dc.

Now make one more double crochet. This is your first shell grouping. (Fig. 5)

REMEMBER - all this time you are inserting your hook into that center hole. You may have to push the stitches to the side so they all fit. If you find it too hard to fit all the shells, you can use a longer foundation chain. You might check to be sure your tension is even and you are not making your stitches too loosely or too tightly as well.

Now you are going to make some more shells. In between each shell you will put 3 chains. These shells will be your first "corners" of the first round.

Fig 6

chain 3 between shell corners

Fig 7

3 dc (second corner)

Fig 8

chain 3, 3 dc (third corner)

Fig 9

chain 3, 3dc (fourth corner), chain 3

Going on, we now need to join the last double crochet to the first shell. Insert your hook into the top chain of your beginning chain. Where is the top chain, you are wondering? Look closely at your stitches. You will see that there are actually 3 "double crochets" with one being your original ch-2 or 3. Look at the post of your first dc on the left. You can see that on top of it sits 2 loops that make a sort of sideways "V". On the top of your next stitch, you can see the same. Then you have your chain-2 or chain-3 that you began with. Depending on which you did, it may sit slighter lower or higher than your double crochet. Your goal is to get it at the same height of the other stitches, but if not exact, it should at least be close. The top chain of that stitch is where you are going to insert your hook (Fig 10). Now, if you haven't already made your slip stitch, go ahead and draw yarn through that chain and through loop on hook. Joining completed! (Figure 11) (YES! Give yourself a pat on the back. Okay, go get a Hershey bar but don't let the chocolate melt on your yarn - as if it will last that long! Ha!)

So far, your pattern would look like this. I am using abbreviations in the pattern section because that is how you are going to see it written in a real pattern. If you have trouble with pattern abbreviations and you have the pattern in your computer, it is a simple matter to put it into more familiar terms. Simply open the file in your word processor and do a "find and replace" , replacing all the abbreviations with the full term. One caution - be sure you do not just do a "replace all" because you may find that "ch" appears as part of a word and you will end up with "stitchain" instead of "stitch". :-)

Abbreviations
hk = hook
YO = yarn over
dc = double crochet
ch = chain
rep = repeat
sl st = slip stitch
sp = space
wk = work
ea = each
beg = beginning

Round 1: Chain-3, yo, make 2 dc in ring, ch 3, * 3dc in ring, ch 3* rep from * twice

Note: At this point you will have 4 shells made, with 3 chains in between each one. Remember that in this pattern a shell is 3 double crochets.

Since you are working with only one color (thank you), you don't have to join another color here. You will simply slip stitch over to the next chain-3 space, which will be the corner space. Okay, I know you want to know how to change colors. I cover that in another place - see Joining New Yarn/Changing Colors in Granny Squares. Thanks!

Extra note: There is another method of completing this round, which I will cover on a separate page so this one won't take quite as long to load. I also don't want to muddy the waters here and confuse you.

For now, simply slip stitch over in the same manner that you just joined. Like this: Insert hook into the next dc (second in the shell, which is the one after the beginning chain-3), YO and pull yarn through both the stitch and the loop on hook. One slip stitch made. Do the same thing with the next dc. Then insert your hook INTO the SPACE made by the chain-3 (Figure 12) and do another slip stitch but draw through the center as well as the loop on hook (Figure 13).

Figure 14

You will now begin the second round. First thing you need to do is to bring the round up to height just as you did on the first round, by working chains. You will use chain-2 or chain-3, whichever you used before.

Remember we are working on the right side only in this piece.

Figure 15

Then make 2 double crochets, right in that same space, (underneath the chain-3 from the previous round).

Chain 3, and make another shell.

What's a shell? Come on, you know. 3 double crochets worked in the same space. So in that space, under the chain-3, you now have 2 shells separated by a chain-3.

You have made the first corner of the second round of your granny square.

Figure 16

Chain 1, then work another corner

Q: What is a corner?
A: (3dc, ch-3, 3dc)

You will chain-3 between shells in the corners and chain-1 between each corner

You now have two corners completed on your second round.

Figure 17

chain-1 and then make another corner

This is the third corner of your second round

Figure 18

chain-1 and make your fourth corner

Figure 19

chain 1, and insert hook into the top chain of your beginning chain2 or 3, yo and pull yarn through the chain and loop on hook. You just joined with a slip stitch (ss). That completes round 3.

You deserve a reward for all this hard work, right? Did you finish that Hershey bar? How about a small dish of Blue Bell Dutch Chocolate ice cream, yum, with those little sprinkles on it? Or maybe you should have something healthy - a piece of fruit?

Rd 1: Ch-3, yo, make 2 dc in ring, ch 3, * 3dc in ring, ch 3* rep from * twice, join with a sl st to top st of beg ch-3

Rnd 2: Sl st in ea of next 2 dc, sl st in ch-3 sp, then in same sp wk (ch 3, 2 dc, ch, shell) (first corner),
ch 1, in next ch-3 sp wk (shell, ch 3, shell) (2nd corner),
ch 1, in next ch-3 sp wk (shell, ch3, shell) (3rd corner),
ch 1, in next ch-3 sp wk (shell, ch3, shell) (4th corner)
ch 1, join with sl st to top of beg ch-3.

Note: At this point, you will have 8 shells. Each corner will have 2 shells separated by a chain-3 space. You will also have a chain-1 space separating your corners from each other.

Note: You will always put 3 chains between your corner shells. Remember that a shell consists of 3 double crochets.

Now you are going to work on your first side. As your square gets larger, your sides will get longer, naturally. To separate shells along the side, we will put a chain-1. Not chain-3. 3 is for the corners. Chain-1 is for sides. Keep in mind that this is only one granny square pattern. There are many. Some use chain-2 for corners, some chain-1. Some don't use any chains along sides. It just depends on what the person writing the pattern likes. So feel free to adjust as works best for you. But be consistent.

Before you can begin round 3, well, first you want to put down the bowl of ice cream - drink up that last bit that melted :-). Now you want to get over to your next chain-3 space. How do you do this? By slip stitching in the next 2 double crochets and then again, in the chain-3 space. You will need to bring your stitches up, so they will be at the proper height for the next round. How do we do this? Right! By chaining 2 or 3, whichever you've decided to use.

Figure 20

Chain 3 to bring to height

Figure 21

Now work a FIRST corner

Aha! What is a FIRST corner, you ask?

For the first corner of each round, you begin with your chain as in Fig. 20, then (2 double crochets in that same space, chain 3, 3 double crochets).

Figure 22

Now what? You can't make a corner because you're not AT the corner. You have to make a "side".

Here's how to do that:
chain 1, work a shell in the ch-1 space from the previous row, then chain 1 again

In this pattern you will chain-3 between shells in the corners, and chain-1 between side shells

Figure 23

Now make another corner. Easy, right?

Review: corner = (3dc, ch 3, 3dc)

Figure 24

chain 1, shell in ch-1 space from previous row to make a "side", chain 1 again

Figure 25

Work another corner. This is your third corner.

Q: How many corners does a square have?

A: Four

Correct! So we have one more corner to make

Figure 26

But first we have to finish out third side!

chain 1, shell in ch-1 space from previous round, chain 1 again

Figure 27

Work fourth corner, chain 1

Figure 28

shell in ch-1 space from previous round, chain 1

This round now has 12 shells. You are adding 4 shells each round. In other words, each round will have one more shell on each side.

Yarn over and pull yarn completely through loop on hook. Tighten. Sew any loose strands in as demonstrated in Those Pesky Ends.

You now know how to make a granny square. Congratulations! You can continue making rounds until you have an afghan sized square, or you can stop now and make a bunch of smaller squares. It doesn't matter. If you are going to put them together - duh, why else make all these squares - then you will probably want to border each square in the same color, or perhaps make your last round the same color on each square. That way your joining will not be visible.

If you need to figure out how many squares you will need to make for your finished afghan, I have some info on bed sizes on the Sizing page.

You have done sooo well! I am proud of you. I have confidence that you can handle round 4 on your own. (If you need a little pick me up - those Riesen chocolate candies are just the best! Okay, if you're watching your waistline, have a diet coke!)

Reminder - on the sides you will chain 1 between shells, in the corners you will work (shell, chain 3, shell). You will always join to the top chain of your beginning ch-3 or ch-2.

Round 4: sl st in ea of next 2 dc, sl st in ch-3 sp, then work (ch 3, 2 dc, ch 3, shell, in same sp for 1st corner), * (ch 1, shell) in ea ch-1 sp between shell groups along side to corner), ch 1, work corners as (shell, ch 3, shell in next sp), repeat from * to last (fourth) side, then (ch 1, shell) in ea ch-1 sp) to corner, ch 1, join with sl st to top of beginning ch-3. (Figure 18)

Repeat Round 4 (each round adding approximately 1" to square) until your square is the size you want it to be. To continue rounds, work (shell, ch 3, shell) for corners. You will add 4 shells each round, one on each side. Then with a ch-1 between groups, shell in each space along sides between corners. Continue working rounds until you have reached your desired square size.

You may finish with a border of single crochet, using the same or a different color. Make one single crochet in each double crochet and one single crochet under each chain between shells, except in corners use 3 single crochets under the chain-3. Adjust this as necessary to keep your square lying flat.

Materials: crochet hook (size depending on what size square you need), #16 needle, scrap yarn

Abbreviations
hk = hook
YO = yarn over
dc = double crochet
ch = chain
rep = repeat
sl st = slip stitch
sp = space
wk = work
ea = each
beg = beginning

Round 1: Chain-3, yo, make 2 dc in ring, ch 3, * 3dc in ring, ch 3* rep from * twice, join with a sl st to top st of beg ch-3

Round 2: Sl st in ea of next 2 dc, sl st in ch-3 sp, then in same sp wk (ch 3, 2 dc, ch, shell) (first corner),
ch 1, in next ch-3 sp wk (shell, ch 3, shell) (2nd corner),
ch 1, in next ch-3 sp wk (shell, ch3, shell) (3rd corner),
ch 1, in next ch-3 sp wk (shell, ch3, shell) (4th corner)
ch 1, join with sl st to top of beg ch-3.

Note: At this point, you will have 8 shells. Each corner will have 2 shells separated by a chain-3 space. You will also have a chain-1 space separating your corners from each other.

Note: You will always put 3 chains between your corner shells. Remember that a shell consists of 3 double crochets.

Round 3: sl st in ea of next 2 dc, sl st in ch-3 sp, ch3, 2dc, ch3, shell in same sp where you just slip stitched (1st corner made),
ch 1, shell in ch-1 sp between groups to form side, ch 1, in next corner ch-3 sp work (shell, ch 3, shell), (2nd corner)
ch 1, shell in ch-1 sp between groups to form second side, ch 1, in next corner ch-3 sp work (shell, ch 3, shell), (3rd corner)
ch 1, shell in ch-1 sp between groups to form third side, ch 1, in next corner ch-3 sp work (shell, ch 3, shell), (4th corner)
ch 1, shell in ch-1 sp between groups to form fourth side, ch 1, join with sl st to top of ch-3.

Note: This round now has 12 shells (3 on each side). You are adding 4 shells each round. Each round will have one more shell on each side.

Round 4: sl st in ea of next 2 dcs, sl st in ch-3 sp, then work (ch 3, 2 dc, ch 3, shell, in same sp for 1st corner), * (ch 1, shell) in ea ch-1 sp between shell groups along side to corner), ch 1, work corners as (shell, ch 3, shell in next sp), repeat from * to last (fourth) side, then (ch 1, shell) in ea ch-1 sp) to corner, ch 1, join with sl st to top of beginning ch-3.

Repeat Round 4 (each round adding approximately 1" to square) - To continue rounds, work (shell, ch 3, shell ) for corners. You will add 4 shells each round, one on each side. Then with a ch-1 between groups, shell in each space along sides between corners. Continue working rounds until you have reached your desired square size.

Now that you have the basics down, you may want to try making a square using different colors for each round. I have detailed instructions on how to change colors in a granny square on a different page.

Once you have crocheted the number of grannies you need for your afghan, placemat, lapghan, shawl, scarf or whatever...you will want to join those squares. Go to Joining Squares. There are pictures to help you out.

Thanks for spending some time with me, this tutorial, and, of course, the chocolate aisle. :-) May all your days be full of happy crocheting! Don't forget to remember those less fortunate and share your skills by doing a bit for charity too!

Okay, I promised you a different method for joining that first round. Here it is. This would be particularly useful if you were changing colors, but it is also useful if you don't like to slip stitch over to the next open space. The dc works for the first round. In this method you make a double crochet, which puts your chain 3 at the correct place to allow you to begin right in that same space, without slip stitching over. On subsequent rounds, you can use a sc or hdc. You can't use the dc as you are not ending on a corner and it would be too much at that point.

Here is your first round complete up to the last shell (BEFORE you work the last chain-3)

Now you will use a double crochet to join like this:

YO, insert hook into top chain of beginning ch-3, yo and pull through (3 loops on hook), finish dc (yo, pull through 2 loops, yo, pull through rem loops)

This is the completed dc joining

Next step is to chain up 2 or 3 to bring your round up to the correct height, then make a corner as follows:

make 2 dc in same space, ch-3, 3 dc
corner completed

on future rounds, use a sc or hdc to join

You will continue your rounds on the same side, not turning each round, as a normal granny square.

As I said, most granny squares are meant to be worked on the "right" side, without turning. However, some people like to turn their grannies, thus making them "reversible" in a sense. If you want to try this, instead of slip stitching to the next space or any of the other methods used when changing colors, you can simply ch-3 and turn, as pictured below: