The granny square chart, explained

The chart

Rounds 1 to 3 of the classic granny square. This diagram is a real chart file, exported by the same code that exports your own charts — you can download the project file and open it in the editor to take it apart.

Three symbols carry the whole thing: the double crochet post (a T with one slash), the chain oval, and the magic ring at the center. In UK terms the posts are trebles — the symbol is the same either way, which is the whole point of charting.

What each round is doing

1. Round 1 — the rosette. Everything is worked into the center ring, so the twelve double crochets radiate from one point rather than sitting on a square. Four groups of three, with two chains between each group. Those four chain spaces are not decoration: they are the corners, marked out before the square has any sides.
2. Round 2 — the square appears. Into each of those four ch-2 spaces you work three double crochets, two chains, three more double crochets. That is what turns a rosette into a square: a corner is simply two clusters sharing one space with a chain bridge between them. Between corners, a single chain.
3. Round 3 — and every round after it. The same move at each corner, plus three double crochets into each ch-1 space along the sides. Every round adds one cluster per side and nothing else changes. Round 4 is round 3 with an extra cluster per side; so is round 12.

Why corners get two chains and sides get one

Look at the chart and follow a side out from the center, then follow a diagonal. The side of a square grows steadily; the corner has to reach further, because the distance from the center to a corner is about one and a half times the distance to the middle of a side. The extra chain is what pays for that extra distance.

Reading a granny square chart

• Start at the center and work outward. Round 1 is the tight ring in the middle; the outermost ring of symbols is the last round.
• Go counter-clockwise within each round if you are right-handed, clockwise if you are left-handed. A granny square is symmetric, so both give the same square.
• Read the feet, not the tops. Three posts meeting at one point at the bottom are three stitches worked into one space — that is a cluster. Three posts standing on three separate positions are three ordinary stitches.
• The join is a dot. Most granny patterns close each round with a slip stitch into the top of the first cluster, drawn as a small filled dot.

The longer version of all of this is in how to read a crochet chart.

Charting your own square

A granny square is a four-fold radial repeat, which means you never have to draw more than a quarter of it:

1. Choose "In the round" and give yourself a ring for each round you plan.
2. Chart one corner and one side. That is the repeating unit — for a classic granny, three double crochets, two chains, three double crochets, one chain.
3. Select it and repeat it ×4. The copies land at exact right angles around the center, so the four corners are identical by construction rather than by eye.
4. Work outward one round at a time, adding one cluster per side each round.
5. Turn the guide rings off before exporting. Circular rings are useful while you place stitches and look wrong under a square motif in a finished pattern.

Variations the same chart handles

• The solid (continuous) granny. Drop the ch-1 between side clusters and butt the clusters against each other. On the chart the side ovals simply disappear; the corners keep their ch-2.
• Larger corner spaces. Some patterns use ch-3 corners for a squarer, looser corner. Three ovals instead of two, and nothing else changes.
• Textured grannies. Swap the plain posts for front post and back post double crochets and the chart still reads the same way — the loop at the foot of the symbol is the only difference.
• Hexagons and triangles. Identical logic with a different repeat count: six corners instead of four, or three. Chart one wedge, repeat it that many times.