A Different Drum: Look at what’s hip again — the granny square
Reaching to more closely examine an article of retail clothing the other day, I snatched back my hand in revulsion after it brushed against something constructed of yarn. There was no mistaking what it was, having done my share of yarn construction projects. Although there was no real need, I peeked for official confirmation. And was right: a granny square!
And not just any granny square, but one serving as the entire front of a garment. And not just ANY garment, but a poncho. No kidding. I gasped in disbelief, opened my eyes wide and groaned — faster than you could say, “Flashback to the '70s”!
If that weren’t enough, it suddenly registered I wasn’t in a vintage store, but a modern retail establishment featuring current fashions. That meant everything old was new again, but in today’s fabrics, or rather yarn.
Just to make sure I wasn’t experiencing a time warp, I Googled “granny square fashions 2023” and was met with these and other, similar headings, “Make your own version of crocheted granny square fashions, as seen on runways everywhere right now” and “Granny squares: the fashion trend that’s here to stay.” Pinterest offered 380 granny square clothing ideas. It was true.
Had the world gone mad?! The dreaded granny squares from my childhood had returned to re-haunt my existence? What do I mean by re-haunt? That suggested they’d haunted me previously. Again, that was the truth.
The first time, back in 1972, I was only 9 years old, but had shown great promise at crocheting under the tutelage of Grandma Smith, who’d come out of the womb in 1895, already able to crochet. Granted, that is pure speculation on my part, but how else can you account for the hundreds of crocheted doilies, pillowcases and handkerchiefs she mass-produced over the years?
I probably should have led with this, but in case you’re lost and don’t know what I’ve been talking about, a granny square is a square piece of crocheted yarn that has been worked in rounds from the center outward. The squares are handmade, not machine-manufactured, which gives them the rustic, homespun appearance for which they are known.
Just 10 years prior to my grandmother’s birth, the earliest documented example of what we’d recognize as a traditional granny square, designed by a Mrs. Phelps, was featured in the April 4, 1885 issue of Prairie Farmer. One of the things that made her granny squares instantly popular was many were made from yarn remnants from other knitted and crocheted projects, which was important when yarn and the money to purchase it were scarce.
That information was courtesy of Wikipedia, which also quoted Edie Eckman’s "The Crochet Answer Book," “The familiar granny square is a special form of square motif. Although there are many variations on the granny square, the traditional one is a double-crocheted square made with a series of chains and double-crocheted blocks.” Like pornography, granny squares may be difficult to describe, but you know one when you see one.
My history of granny square haunting began when my mother tried to capitalize on my pre-adolescent crocheting abilities by demanding I make dozens of small granny squares, some cream-colored and others avocado green-colored (it was the '70s, after all), and then join them together into a full-sized, checkerboard afghan.
Generating scores of small, uniform-size squares and tediously piecing them together was too ambitious a project for a kid and beginning crocheter. Most adults couldn’t handle it, but Mom mercilessly cracked the whip, anyway, until I flat-out refused and abandoned the project. Her snide comments about it continued for years, but fortunately, I moved on to crochet other things.
As an adult, a co-worker asked me to restore a nearly-disintegrated granny-square afghan her great-grandmother (probably a contemporary of Mrs. Phelps) had crocheted. It took four months, 20 colors of yarn and a couple of stiff drinks before each work session to slog through the project, which only one of us was happy about. So forgive me for refusing to get on board the current “hip to be granny square” crazed fashion craze and dressing in crocheted finery on “Granny Square Day” Aug. 15. PTSD and good taste prevent it.
— Kristy Smith’s Different Drum humor columns are archived at her blog: diffdrum.wordpress.com.
This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: A Different Drum: Look at what’s hip again — the granny square
