Hard as it may be to imagine with the 80mph winds buffeting us, but Mandy and I are already thinking about Summer. We have been reviewing our stock and allowing ourselves to be tempted by the lovely new yarns which Lang Yarns are launching this year, although we are being good and not actually choosing anything until we have seen the yarn IRL (in real life). Consequently, I have found myself tackling a crocheted Granny Square vest top – not for my own use as I am perhaps a bit too mature for such a garment, but thinking about our younger customers, many of whom are very keen crocheters. Mandy has taught me how to crochet two squares together as well, so I am learning something new, which is the thing I love most about this yarn based hobby – we never stop learning!
As I tackled the first Granny Squares last night, I started wondering why they are called Granny Squares. The oddest thing for me being that I very much associate this kind of crochet with the hippy craze of the late 60s and 70s and with young people wearing tiny vest tops to Glastonbury, rather than with the grannies that they are named for. My 19 year old, for example, has just acquired a lovely Granny Square cardigan, crocheted in West Yorkshire Spinners Colour Lab DK, which she can barely be persuaded to take off. It is super cosy and slouchy, so I don’t blame her! As it happens, crochet and Granny Squares, always popular, are making a major fashion comeback at the moment, so it seems a good time to think about them.
A Granny Square is a crocheted square, worked in rounds from the centre outwards and resembling coarse lace. It is a traditional form of handmade crochet and cannot be manufactured by machine. It is worth bearing this in mind when looking at Granny Square crochet garments online or in the supermarket – they will all have to have been handmade and it is unlikely that the makers will have been paid fairly. Theoretically one could make one enormous Granny Square, and I have known people who have. However, the more usual thing is to produce multiple small squares and assemble them together to make clothing, bags, blankets and other household textiles. It seems likely that the first reference to a Granny Square was in the USA in a publication called ‘Prairie Farmer’ which has a photograph of a design by a Mrs Phelps who used it to make an afghan.
Modern Granny Squares begin with a small loop of chain stitches. They generally alternate sets of treble stitches (double stitches in US speak) and chain stitches. However, they are infinitely variable both with stitch types or in even in shape – they can form triangles and hexagons. In order to create the angle in the corners, the stitcher will use extra chain stitches. There are hundreds of variants and entire books have been devoted to Granny Square designs – Mandy says she has one called ‘200 Crochet Blocks’ for example. I think that one of the reasons they are so eternally popular is that they look complex, while being relatively simple to create, and that they make very nice textiles.
Granny Squares are often the way in which people are introduced to crochet because they are both pretty and versatile. Our beginners crochet courses, for example, teach you how to crochet one. Furthermore, they are an excellent way to use up leftover yarns from your stash should you wish to do so and they are also fabulous for playing with colours and different types of yarns. There is no evidence as to why they are called Granny Squares, but suggestions range from them being named for the grannies who would be seen crocheting them, to the vintage appearance of them. It does seem, however, that the name was fully popularised by the 1970’s.
I hope you have found this little foray into Granny Squares interesting. And if you have any special requests for Summer yarns, please let me know.