Christmas Granny Square Variations

A granny square is the same move over and over: clusters of three double crochets worked into the gaps between the clusters below, never into the tops of the stitches. Once that is in your hands, everything interesting about a granny square is color, and Christmas is the season where color choices go wrong most often.

Four layouts below, in rough order of difficulty. None of them changes the stitch pattern at all — every one is the classic square with the colors moved around.

What you need

• Worsted-weight yarn (yarn weight chart) in red, green, white and, optionally, a metallic gold
• A hook that matches your yarn, often a US H/8 (5.0 mm); see the hook size chart
• A yarn needle for joining and for ends — and there will be a lot of ends

US abbreviations throughout. The abbreviations chart covers anything unfamiliar.

Classic granny refresher, one color

Center. Magic ring, then ch 3 (counts as the first dc), 2 dc into the ring, ch 2. *3 dc into the ring, ch 2; repeat from * three times total. Join to the top of the beginning ch-3. You now have four clusters separated by four ch-2 corners.

Every round after. In each corner space work (3 dc, ch 2, 3 dc) — that is what turns the corner. Along each side, work 3 dc into each ch-space between clusters. Join at the end of the round.

That is the whole thing. Each round adds one cluster per side, and the square grows outward without you ever having to count stitches.

Variation 1: candy-cane rings

The easiest and the most obviously festive. Change color by round, alternating red and white, with each color occupying one or two complete rounds.

Keep the bands even — two rounds of each, or one and one, but the same throughout. Uneven bands read as a mistake rather than a stripe.

Finish on white. A white outer round separates each square from its neighbors when you join them, and without that separation a blanket of red-and-white squares turns into a single busy field.

Variation 2: star center, quiet border

Work the first two rounds in a bright accent — gold, or white — then the remaining rounds in a single deep green.

This is the layout that photographs best of the four, because the eye lands on one small bright center against a calm field. It is also the most forgiving: the accent is only two rounds, so if the gold yarn is a metallic that fights you, you only have to fight it briefly.

If you are using a metallic for the center, hold it together with a strand of ordinary worsted rather than working it alone. There is more on why in yarn for Christmas crochet.

Variation 3: the quartered square

Two colors split diagonally, so each square is half red and half green. Made properly this involves carrying two balls of yarn and swapping at the corner, which is a real technique and worth learning.

The shortcut that works: make the square in one color, make a second square in the other color, cut nothing — instead, work each square only to the halfway point across two sides and join the halves. In practice most people find the carried-yarn version easier once they have done it twice.

Whichever way you get there, do not carry the unused color loosely across the back. Long floats snag on fingers and toes, which matters if this ends up as a blanket. Either catch the float every few stitches or use separate small balls for each section.

The color-change mechanics are the same as anywhere else in crochet — complete the last yarn-over of the stitch before the change with the new color, which is covered in changing yarn color.

Variation 4: the Nordic square

Three rounds of cream, one round of red, three more rounds of cream, one round of green. Narrow accent stripes on a pale ground, the way a Scandinavian sweater is laid out.

This is the variation that looks least like a Christmas craft project and most like something you would buy, which is exactly why it is worth making. It also uses very little of the accent colors, so it is the best layout for using up small amounts.

Joining squares into a set

Match the edges stitch for stitch. Lay two squares edge to edge with their outer rounds aligned, so each cluster faces a cluster. If you join without aligning, the corners drift and the blanket comes out as a parallelogram.

Pick one joining method and use it for everything. Whip stitch through the back loops is flattest. A slip stitch join leaves a visible ridge, which can look good if you do it deliberately in a contrasting color. Joining as you go is faster overall and much harder to undo.

Join with the color you finished on. A white join on white-edged squares disappears. A red join on white edges becomes a grid, which is a choice — just make it on purpose.

Do the ends as you go. A blanket of thirty squares in four colors is somewhere north of two hundred ends. Weaving them in at the end of each square takes five minutes; weaving in two hundred at once is how a project gets abandoned in November. There is a method that holds up in weaving in ends and blocking.

Mistakes that muddy Christmas colorwork

Red next to green with nothing between them. The two colors are close in value — similar darkness — so they vibrate against each other and the boundary goes muddy at any distance. A round of white or cream between them fixes it completely. This is the single most useful thing to know about the Christmas palette.

Too many colors in one square. Four is the ceiling, and three is better. Every color you add is another set of ends.

A dark outer round on every square. Dark green edges make the whole blanket read as dark green with confetti in it. Edge in the lightest color you are using.

Squares that are not the same size. Usually a tension difference between colors — some yarns in the same brand work up slightly tighter than others, especially the metallics. Check one square from each colorway against the others before making thirty.

Ignoring the corners. Every corner needs its (3 dc, ch 2, 3 dc). Miss one and the square goes visibly off-square by the next round, and no amount of blocking fully recovers it.

Frequently asked

How many squares for a blanket?

Depends entirely on square size, which depends on how many rounds you work. Make one square first, measure it, then divide your target blanket dimensions by that measurement. Doing it the other way around — deciding on forty squares first — is how blankets end up as awkward rectangles.

Can I mix the four variations in one blanket?

Yes, and it works best if they share an outer round color. A blanket of mixed layouts all edged in cream reads as a coherent set; the same squares edged in their own colors read as a pile of samples.

Why is my square curling up at the edges?

Too few stitches for the round, usually a missed corner. A granny square should lie flat straight off the hook with no blocking at all — if it does not, count the clusters on each side and find the short one.

Do I have to fasten off between colors?

Not if the next color starts at the same corner. You can carry the previous color up the side for one round without it showing much. Over more than one round it shows.

What should I make next?

Squares are flat work, so if you want a change of discipline the stuffed pieces are the opposite skill: a Christmas tree or a gnome. For something flat but far more open, snowflakes introduce thread and blocking.