March 17th, 2010 
mio I have been crocheting for years now; well over a decade, maybe even close to two. I have my own (mostly) crochet blog. I’m one of the Crochet board moderators on Craftster. I belong to a crochet guild (or two). I’ve taught many people how to crochet.
And yet, I’m still not clear on what a Granny Square is.
Some would say it’s a very specific pattern made up of groups of 3 double crochet stitches worked into the spaces of a previous round, in the shape of a square, like this:
Some would say that it’s the pattern of 3dc stitches that matters, and that any shape still counts as a Granny Square:
Some would say that what defines a Granny Square is that it is a square crocheted in the round, like this:
Some would say that all that matters is that it be a crocheted square…
or that it be a motif, of any description, that is repeated… (I can’t find the giant granny square blanket I made when I first learned to crochet, so here’s what I found doing a Google Image Search)
And so I ask you, what IS a Granny Square?
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11 Blankets in 2011
The first is the more “traditional” one, IMO, but all the others count, too. If someone says to me “granny square” I think of the first, but in the granny square groups on Ravelry and Flickr all crocheted squares/shapes are accepted.
IMHO a Granny SQUARE has to be SQUARE. A traditional Granny Square is the one you have pictured here, shells separated by chains. I would personally also call a square worked in the round a granny square, but not the traditional variety. A shape that is not square, is not a granny square, but it could be a granny rectangle or hexagon or whatever. In my experience, a square made in rows, rather than rounds, is called a sampler square. That is not to say I’m right though of course I think I am. ;-) LOL