If you know me, then you know I am obsessed with granny squares, but it got me thinking about where do granny squares actually originate from? and why do they even exist as a thing? Who designed them and why?
As with many craft traditions, pinpointing the exact origins of the granny square is challenging. Its history is somewhat murky, as it wasn’t the creation of a single inventor or tied to a precise moment in time, even if people say it was this magazine at one time or this person at that time. Instead, the granny square evolved as a practical, versatile motif within the larger tradition of textile crafts, likely originating as a way to use up leftover scraps of yarn.
It is widely believed that an American woman named Mrs. Jane Weaver Phelps played a significant role in popularising the granny square motif during the 19th century. Her name is often associated with some of the earliest documented patterns for crochet motifs resembling what we now call the granny square. Historical accounts suggest that she may have contributed patterns to magazines or shared them informally within crafting circles in the mid-to-late 1800s. However, there is no concrete evidence directly linking Mrs. Phelps to the invention of the granny square. It’s far more plausible that she helped popularise the design rather than inventing it.
It is much more likely that the true origins of the granny square trace back to Europe, where modular crochet motifs may have existed under different names or forms. As people migrated to the Americas, these techniques and ideas likely traveled with them, giving it an American identity and evolving into what we recognise today as the granny square.
Before industrialisation, textile techniques were heavily focused on functionality. Squares joined together into blankets or throws provided excellent warmth, thanks to the layering of material and the air pockets created by the stitch pattern. This feature would have been especially valuable in colder climates, where insulation was a priority.
Interestingly, blankets from this period were rarely made with the yarns we are familiar with today. Instead, they were crafted using natural fibres such as flax (linen), cotton, silk, or wool, which were spun into fine threads. Thicker yarns, like those commonly used in modern crochet, were less prevalent because they required specialised spinning techniques that were not widely available.
When yarn was available in pre-industrial Europe, it was often reserved for hand-knitting or hand-weaving smaller, warm items like socks or shawls. Blankets, on the other hand, were typically woven on looms using thread instead. Because yarns and threads were so labour intensive to produce and highly valuable, people rarely let fibres go to waste. Scraps left over from spinning, weaving, or other crafts were carefully saved and creatively repurposed.
This culture of thrift and resourcefulness made the granny square’s modular nature particularly appealing. It’s entirely possible that the granny square, with its small and simple design, emerged as a way to use up these precious leftovers. It also offered an alternative for creating blankets without the need for a loom, an affordable, though slow, process that could be carried out over time. It certainly may be the reason for the granny square's reputation for being a little crazy in design, having vivid and various threads running through it because that's exactly what would have happened by default.
Additionally, the portability of granny squares made them a practical choice for women balancing domestic and agricultural work. Their small size allowed them to be worked on in short increments during spare moments, whether at home or on the move. This convenience may have made granny squares, and similar modular motifs, a favoured technique even before they were formally documented.
Crochet in general is believed to have its roots in much earlier textiles such as tambour embroidery (16th century) and nalbinding (a much older, looped technique). Modular motifs from these practices could be seen as precursors to the granny square. Patchwork quilting as well dates back centuries and of course has a similar modular and scrap-utilisation ethos. The granny square might be thought of as the crochet equivalent of a patchwork quilt, designed for practicality but imbued with aesthetic value. Assembling small, intricate motifs into a larger piece can also be found in early forms of lacework, such as Irish crochet, which flourished in the 19th century. This suggests that the granny square might have developed as a simplified, accessible version of this more labour-intensive craft.
As with most crafts, it's important not to specifically link just one person or place in particular as being the origin of a craft. Crafts are an ever changing and evolving entity. We could go back even further with evidence of early textile production dating back tens of thousands of years. Some of the oldest known examples come from archaeological findings, such as fragments of woven fibers discovered in sites like Dolní VÄ›stonice in the Czech Republic and Çatalhöyük in Türkiye. These date from around 25,000–30,000 years ago! Weaving, knotting and twisting fibres were often used by early humans to create functional items such as nets, bags, and clothing just as we do today.
If you've read this far, I hope you've enjoyed this little journey down history lane and given you some food for thought. I know it has for me. I also have a whole bowl of tiny yarn scraps, which I've been collecting that I now know exactly what to do with!
Image: Easy Granny Cardigan by Laura Eccleston