Apr
okay so granny square cardigans
Right so I made one of these in spring 2022 when I was basically living on my couch watching old episodes of The Office for like the third time through and I needed something to do with my hands that wasn’t doom scrolling. The granny square cardigan thing is actually way more straightforward than it looks even though everyone acts like it’s this huge project.
The basic idea is you’re making a bunch of squares and then connecting them but here’s what nobody tells you at first – you gotta decide if you want to join-as-you-go or make all your squares separately and seam them later. I did the seam later method because I’m not that organized and honestly I kinda regret it because seaming like 40+ squares is mind-numbing.
what you actually need
So yarn wise I used Caron Simply Soft for mine because it was on sale at Michaels and I bought like 8 skeins in different colors. I think I had that grey heather color, a cream, a dusty rose, and maybe navy? The nice thing about Simply Soft is it’s acrylic so you can throw the whole cardigan in the washing machine later and not worry about it. I’ve also seen people use Lion Brand Pound of Love which is cheaper if you’re doing a single color or just a few colors.
You need a 5mm hook usually, maybe 5.5mm if you crochet tight. I crochet pretty loose so I went with the 5mm. Also gonna need a yarn needle for weaving in ends and seaming, and honestly a good podcast or audiobook because this is NOT a project where you need to concentrate hard after you get the first couple squares done.
the actual granny square part
The traditional granny square is basically chains and double crochets in groups. You start with a magic ring or chain 4 and join it. Then you do chain 3 (counts as first dc), 2 more dc in the ring, chain 2, then *3 dc, chain 2* three more times. Join to the top of your starting chain 3. That’s round one.
Round two is where it actually starts looking like something. You slip stitch to the first chain-2 space, then chain 3, 2 dc in same space, chain 1, then in the corner do 3 dc, chain 2, 3 dc. Chain 1, then in the next corner do the same corner thing. Keep going around. The corners are always 3dc, chain 2, 3dc and the sides are just 3dc, chain 1 between corners.
I made my squares 5 rounds each which gave me about 5 inch squares, maybe closer to 5.5 inches. You want them all the same size obviously so measure your first one and count your rounds and then just repeat that exact pattern for every single square.
how many squares do you even need
This depends on your size but I’m gonna tell you what I did and you can adjust. I made 48 squares total. I arranged them like this: back panel was 12 squares (3 across, 4 down), each front panel was 9 squares (3 across, 3 down), and each sleeve was 9 squares (3 across, 3 down).
Actually wait no let me recalculate that because my sleeves were… okay yeah each sleeve was 9 squares but I arranged them differently, like I did 3 across at the shoulder tapering down but honestly the sleeves were the part where I kinda just eyeballed it and that’s probably why one sleeve is slightly longer than the other but whatever, you can’t really tell when I’m wearing it.
The thing that REALLY annoyed me about this whole process was the color planning. I wanted it to look random but intentional, you know? So I couldn’t just grab any square, I had to lay them all out on my living room floor and my cat Pepper kept sitting on them and messing up my arrangement. I must have rearranged those squares like six times before I actually started joining them.
joining the squares together
So there’s a million ways to join granny squares but I used the whip stitch method because it’s what I knew how to do. You basically line up two squares with wrong sides together and use your yarn needle to whip stitch through the back loops only. This creates a little ridge on the right side which actually looks kinda cool and intentional.
Some people do slip stitch joining or single crochet seams which are flatter. The join-as-you-go method I mentioned before is where you actually crochet the squares together as you’re making the last round of each square which saves SO much time on the back end but requires you to know exactly where each square goes before you finish it.
I joined mine in strips first. So I made 4 strips for the back (each strip being 3 squares across), 3 strips for each front panel, and 3 strips for each sleeve. Then I joined the strips together to make the panels. Then I had to figure out how to actually construct the cardigan shape.
constructing the actual cardigan
Okay this is where it gets a little weird because you’re basically making a giant rectangle with armholes. First you join the front panels to the back panel at the shoulders. Leave the bottom few squares of the back unattached on each side – those gaps are gonna be your armholes.
Actually I’m explaining this badly. Let me start over. Lay your back panel flat. Put your front panels on either side like you’re making a giant T-shape. The top 2 or 3 rows of squares on the front panels should line up with the top rows of the back panel – these are your shoulders so you seam those together. But don’t seam the sides yet because you need armholes.
For the sleeves you’re gonna join them into the armholes you created. I seamed mine by laying the whole thing flat and pinning the sleeves where they needed to go, then stitching them in. The sleeves should be attached to both the front and back panels in that armhole space. Then you seam down the sides of the body and the underside of the sleeves in one continuous seam.
Honestly this part was confusing and I watched like three different YouTube videos and they all did it slightly differently so I just… did what made sense to me and it worked out fine.
edges and finishing
Once you have the whole thing assembled it’s gonna need edging or it looks unfinished. I did a simple single crochet border around all the edges – the front opening, the bottom hem, the cuffs, and the neck. Just single crochet evenly around, maybe chain 1 at corners to keep it from puckering.
Some people do a shell stitch edge or picot edge to make it fancier but I wanted mine to be wearable and not too precious. The single crochet border also helps stabilize everything and keeps the edges from rolling.
Weaving in ends took me like an entire evening because there’s SO many ends. Every time you change colors that’s two ends to weave in. With 48 squares and multiple colors I probably had like 150+ ends to deal with. I did it while watching a movie or I would have lost my mind.
sizing adjustments
If you need a bigger cardigan just add more squares. Like instead of 3 squares across for each front panel you could do 4 across. Or add another row going down. The math is pretty forgiving because you’re working in square units.
For length you can add rows of squares. For width add columns. The sleeves can be adjusted by making them longer or shorter or even leaving them off entirely and making it a vest which honestly might have been easier now that I think about it.
One thing to watch out for is the shoulder width. If you make the back panel too wide your shoulders will be droopy and it’ll look sloppy. Measure across your shoulders before you commit to the width. I made mine about 18 inches across the back at the shoulders which fits me pretty well.
yarn amounts and planning
I used probably 6 or 7 full skeins of the Caron Simply Soft total, maybe a little more. Each skein is like 315 yards I think? So around 2000 yards total for the whole project. If you’re doing a single color you’ll need more of that one color obviously. For a scrappy multi-color version you can use whatever you have in your stash as long as it’s all the same weight yarn.
Weight matters because if you mix like a worsted weight with a chunky weight your squares will be different sizes even if you do the same number of rounds. Stick to all worsted or all DK or whatever you choose.
I’ve seen people make these with Red Heart Super Saver which is even cheaper than Simply Soft and holds up great in the wash. Bernat Blanket yarn makes a super chunky cozy version but you’d need fewer squares because they’d be bigger. Someone on Instagram made one with Paintbox Yarns Cotton DK and it looked really crisp and nice but cotton has no stretch so keep that in mind for wearability.
color schemes that actually work
So my first instinct was to just use every color I liked which was a mistake when I laid them out because it looked chaotic in a bad way. What worked better was picking like 3-4 main colors and then using them in different combinations across the squares.
Some squares were all one color, some had a different color for each round, some had two colors alternating. That gave it variety but kept it cohesive. I also made sure to distribute the colors evenly so I didn’t end up with all the pink squares on one side or whatever.
Neutrals as a base help a lot. Like if you use cream or grey or tan for at least one round in most of your squares, it ties everything together even if your other colors are really different. I’ve seen gorgeous ones that are all shades of blue and green, or a sunset theme with oranges and pinks and purples.
The monochrome ones in different shades of the same color are probably the easiest to pull off without overthinking it. Like all greys from light to dark, or all blues, or all earth tones.
wearing the actual thing
These cardigans are pretty casual, not like office wear unless your office is super casual. They’re bulky because of all the seaming and the texture of the granny squares. I wear mine with jeans and a tank top or over a dress. It’s not warm enough for actual winter but it’s perfect for spring and fall or summer evenings.
The drape is different from a knit cardigan because crochet doesn’t have as much stretch. It’s more structured which can be good or bad depending on what you want. Mine hangs open in the front because I didn’t add buttons or closures but you could definitely add a button band or use a shawl pin to close it.
Washing it I just throw it in a mesh laundry bag and wash on delicate with cold water then lay flat to dry. The acrylic yarn makes it pretty indestructible honestly. I’ve washed mine probably ten times and it still looks the same.
timeline reality check
This is not a quick project. Making 48 granny squares even though each one only takes like 20 minutes means you’re looking at like 16 hours just for the squares. Then seaming took me probably another 6-8 hours spread over several days. Weaving in ends was another 2-3 hours. Edging maybe 2 hours.
So all in maybe 25-30 hours of actual work? I did mine over about six weeks working on it here and there when I felt like it. If you’re more focused you could definitely finish in a couple weeks.
The nice thing is it’s super portable and you can work on individual squares anywhere. I took mine to appointments and crocheted in waiting rooms, worked on it during my lunch break, whatever. Once you’re at the seaming stage it’s less portable because you’re dealing with bigger pieces.
Honestly the repetitive nature of making all those squares is either gonna be meditative for you or incredibly boring, there’s no in between. For me it was meditative at first and then boring around square 30 but I pushed through because I wanted to actually finish something for once instead of having another UFO sitting in my closet.
