Little Crochet: Granny Squares Galore

I love granny squares. I can't get enough of them and have been making way more than I actually need. I usually make them for the pleasure of making of them, often without knowing what I'll end up doing with them, if anything.

And yet, it was far from love at first sight. My earliest memory of granny squares was a crochet blanket on my grandparents' sofa. It was a garish affair that I never really liked. Years later, when I rediscovered crochet, I dismissed granny squares as old-fashioned, and stayed clear of them. To me, they were tacky and reminiscent of the-not-so-best-of 70s fashion, like these:

*Gasps* Mind you, I think Paul McCartney rocks them way better, but hey, I'm a Beatles fan, so I may be biased:

Anyway, the truth is, I think I felt intimated by the apparent complexity of their structure - they are, in fact, deceptively simple, but obviously you wouldn't know that until you'd learnt to make one. In those early days, I tried my hand at a classic granny square detailed in a crochet learning book. Don't ask me how but I ended up with 5 corners. The reason is actually simple: I did two sets of three trebles in the middle section (top in the photo), and in granny square maths, 2 sets of three trebles = 1 corner. But I didn't realise that then, and therefore couldn't see where I'd gone wrong.

Oh dear. That was it, I was done with granny squares. Or so I thought.

But then, my crochet addiction properly started. I went and bought yarn for no reason, spent hours browsing the Internet for crochet creations and easy-to-follow patterns. And one day, I bought a wonderful book: "The New Encyclopedia of Crochet Techniques", by Jan Eaton. I think it made me realise the incredible versatility of crochet. If you'll pardon the cheap pun, I was hooked for good.

In that book there was a section about square motifs, one of which was the simple granny square. It seemed to be winking at me every time I fell on its page, as if saying: "You know you want to." Just at that time, I had purchased a thick variegated yarn which I didn't really know what to do with. Its fate was thus sealed.

Soon, a four-corner structure started flying off my hook, in a rainbow of gradually changing colors. It was pure joy to watch it grow, with its many colours shimmering in the light. I took it with me on holiday, safely tucked in my recently completed summer tote, ready to be taken out as soon as I had a moment to myself.

After that, there was no way back. I became a granny square junkie.

I started making more granny squares...

...and more granny squares...

...er, and more granny squares...

...yep, and more granny squares...

In fact, I am currently working on a granny square project (there's a surprise)... Here's a little sneak peak:

Can you guess what it is (as in, apart from granny squares)? I won't tell you more, as I'm sure I'll very soon dedicate a whole post about it :)

I have also two other granny square WIPs, which are in no fit condition at the moment to be photographed. I have also just received in the post a small mountain of yarn that will definitely involve some (heavy) granny square work.

And given the incredible variety of granny squares (plus the fact that you can always create your own if you do get tired of them!), it looks like I'm not going to get bored soon. Here's the tiniest selection, a montage by aidaha from this blog post: