Granny Square Color Palette
For many crocheters, the humble granny square is their introduction to crochet, and it’s easy to see why. Granny squares are fun to make and quick to combine into larger projects like blankets.
There are so many types of granny squares to choose from. And then once you choose a granny square pattern, you have almost limitless color combinations you can use. All that variety can be fun, but also a little overwhelming! So how do you begin to pick a granny square color palette?
I recently made a granny square blanket of my own, so today I’m sharing all about it. Let’s dig into the thought process behind granny square color combinations (and I’ll spill all the details about my blanket at the end of this post so you can re-create it if you’d like)!
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First Things First
Choose Your Granny Square Pattern
Before you can decide on your granny square blanket’s color palette, you should first pick out the type of granny squares you’ll be making. That way you’ll know how many colors are possible for each square.
Some blankets, like this beautiful Cozy Days Daisy Blanket by All About Ami, repeat the exact same color combination for each granny square in the blanket. But if you’re here reading this, you probably want to crochet a blanket with more of a patchwork look – maybe like this Hygge Burst Blanket by Nautikrall.
Do a quick search on Pinterest or Ravelry and you’ll find more than enough granny square patterns to choose from!
Determine How Many Colors are Needed
Once you’ve picked out your granny square style, you’re ready to determine how many colors you need for your blanket.
You may be crocheting an entire granny square with one color, then combining different colors of squares into a patchwork blanket. In that case, you’ll want to determine how many total squares you’ll need for your blanket and how many colors you want to repeat.
Alternatively, you may want multiple colors per square. For example, many granny squares are made with four rounds, so if you’re using a different color per round, that would be four colors per square. If you use an additional color for the border between squares, you could potentially have a fifth color.
Choosing Your Color Palette
Have you ever seen a granny square blanket and thought “that is the prettiest thing I’ve ever seen!” or unfortunately, “those colors don’t go together at all!”. Some of this can be attributed to personal taste, but a lot of what’s visually attractive can be traced to actual design principles.
Color Theory
The Basics of Color Theory
Remember color theory from art class? If it’s been a while, I’ll give you a quick refresher. Color theory is the study of the relationships between colors.
The color wheel maps the color spectrum onto a circular wheel and was first developed by Sir Isaac Newton in 1666, Cool huh?
Colors are divided into categories – primary, secondary, and tertiary. Within those categories, there are also shades and tints of each color when combined with white or black.
Primary colors are red, blue, and yellow and are the basis for all other colors. Secondary colors are orange, green, and purple and are made by combining two primary colors. Tertiary colors are a combination of a primary and a secondary color (like red-orange, blue-purple, or yellow-green).
Using Color Theory for Crochet
What does all this have to do with choosing a granny square color palette? More than you’d think! Knowing how to choose colors that are harmonious and pleasing to the eye is key to making good color decisions.
Color evokes feeling, often without us even realizing it. Neutrals can be calming, earth tones can feel homey, cool colors can be serene, and warm colors can be energetic or vibrant.
In general, reds, oranges, and yellows are warm colors and blues, purples, and greens are cool colors. But there are also warmer and cooler variations within each color that can play into design as well.
Some color combinations are more visually appealing than others. Analogous colors are side by side on the color wheel. Complementary colors are direct opposites on the color wheel. These kinds of combinations are each attractive in their own way.
If you’d like to explore color theory more to help you choose your granny square color palette, I love this tool on Canva’s website! You can choose any color in the color wheel and find its complements and other combinations.
Principals of Design
You may never have thought of it this way, but I believe that crochet is art, and art has a a certain set of guidelines that make it “work”. There are 7 (some say 12) principles of design that can guide us (either consciously or unconsciously) as we put together our crochet blankets.
These principles of design are emphasis, balance, contrast, repetition, proportion, movement, and white space/negative space.
I’m going to touch on just a few that I think help most with choosing a granny square color palette for a blanket.
Repetition
Using the same granny square over and over to make rows of a blanket automatically puts repetition into your blanket design. But you can add to this by repeating colors in a patterned way.
For example, if you’re crocheting a patchwork blanket, you might pick 6 colors that you repeat multiple times. Or if you’re making multi-colored granny squares, you might repeat the same color combinations in a patterned, repeated way (more on this below about my own blanket).
Repetition unifies the look of your blanket and helps it make sense to the eye.
Balance
A balanced design is a harmonious design. Darker colors are weightier and lighter colors are, well, lighter. Balancing the contrast of dark and light can be an important part of your color choices.
Symmetry is a part of balance, as well. If you’re repeating the same granny square, you’ll naturally end up with some symmetry (same number of squares in each row, etc). You can add to this symmetry by the placement of your colors – placing them at even intervals, for example.
White Space
White space (or negative space) is by defitinion, empty. Our eyes naturally travel across a design, and white space allows the eye to rest. It gives a visual break.
Lucky for us, granny square blankets have the perfect opportunity for white space – the joined border between squares! This is why designers so often choose a neutral color for their border. It serves as white space.
Other Sources of Inspiration
Color inspiration can come from a variety of sources. Are you making your granny square blanket for a particular room of the house? If so, you might want to choose colors based on the colors you already have in that room.
Or maybe you’re making a blanket for a certain season – cozy, warm earth tones for fall, or bright reds and greens for Christmas.
If you’re starting with a blank canvas and need inspiration, I love searching Pinterest for color palettes. Just type in “warm, neutral color palette” or “beachy summer color palette”…or anything you like!
You might also like the Crochet Studio app. You can search for your favorite yarn brands and colors, create color palettes, and even generate blanket patterns. Canva has lots of color palettes you can explore for granny square color ideas as well.
My Granny Square Blanket
I recently went through this entire color-choosing process for my own granny square blanket. I absolutely love how it turned out and want to share the colors and layout with you too!
For the blanket pictured in this pattern, I chose the Sunburst Granny Square and used the pattern written in this blog post by Katie Gets Creative. Don’t you love the way her granny square pattern looks like flowers?
I used Hobby Lobby’s I Love This Cotton yarn in seven colors – Rosy, Warm Blush, Gold, Serene Spa, Stonewash Blue, French Lilac, and White, plus Parchment as my joining border.
I had to experiment a little bit to figure out how I was going to use ALL these colors. After all, I chose a granny square pattern with only four rounds, but had bought way more yarn than that! My first attempts had almost too much variation, and I couldn’t pull together a cohesive look.
Granny Square Color Palette and Layout
After some trial and error, I decided to crochet the center of every square in Gold, and then use either Rosy or Warm Blush for the second round. This provided some needed unity and repetition for the entire blanket.
Then I used either Serene Spa, Stonewash Blue, French Lilac, and Rosy or Warm Blush for the third round of each square. This left me with eight possible color combinations. I used half of the combinations for odd rows and the other half for even rows.
Finally, I used White for the 4th round of every square.
The table below outlines the way I ordered these granny square color combinations (listing the colors for rows 2 and 3 of each square). Each row has 10 total squares, and I repeated these two rows for a total of 12 rows.
- P – Pink
- R – Rosy
- B – Blue
- Pur – Purple
- G – Green
| P + R | R + Pur | P + G | R + B | P + R | R + Pur | P + G | R + B | P + R | R + Pur |
| R + G | P + B | R + P | P + Pur | R + G | P + B | R + P | P + Pur | R + G | P + B |
Wrapping Up
Finally, I used the join-as-you-go method of joining my squares, as shown in this video tutorial by Nautikrall Crochet. I used the color Parchment for this, then added a quick border with this lovely berry stitch pattern.
And there you have it! When you see a beautiful crochet granny square blanket, chances are someone carefully and thoughtfully designed its look with color and placement of the squares.
I hope you feel empowered and informed to try it yourself! For more helpful crochet resources, click here.
No time to crochet today? Save this on Pinterest for when you need it!
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All rights reserved. Designed and written by Jennifer Percival. This pattern is property of Crochet to Play. The written pattern and images are for personal use only. Please do not redistribute, transfer, or sell the pattern or images, in part or in whole. Thank you.
