This is an initial attempt to gather together the relevant information for squares for Mumsnet and WoollyHugs, starting with the most recent thread.  A huge thank you to all contributors.

How many stitches is 6”? And other ‘getting started’ questions.

Many of the patterns below are sourced from Ravelry, which is the essential resource for knitters and crocheters; it’s free to register and has gazillions of free patterns to try out.  Note: these are not all for 6” squares. Many of them are for larger dishcloths and need resizing before they will be 6” in a double knit yarn in your gauge.  They are mostly easy to adjust just by removing the number of stitches inside the border of 3 or so garter stitches each side but if in doubt: ask.

Starter patterns

The simplest square of all is garter stitch – knit every row.  Remember the motto: simple squares are good, simple squares are essential. And if nothing else, you can use it as a gauge square too!

Next – stocking stitch or stockinette as the Americans call it. This is knit one row, purl one row and creates the flat, traditional surface of knitted garments.  Stockinette curls at the edges so you can stabilise the square by knitting two rows (garter stitch) first and then knitting the first and last two stitches of each row.

If you want to start with something more adventurous, why not try the Chinese waves pattern? This is very simple but effective.

Textured patterns

The simplest textured pattern is seed stitch which in the UK we would call moss stitch. It’s just knit one, purl one and then in the next row, purl one, knit one.  However, it is a bit laborious to do if you’re a slow knitter because you have to move the yarn back and forth between every stitch.  Also if you lose your place you can end up on the wrong stitch and not creating the pattern you want.  You need an even number of stitches.

1. Moss stitch
2.  is a variation on seed stitch and needs an odd number of stitches to work.
3. Rice stitch is very effective – you need to be able to knit through the back of the loop but this isn’t too difficult.
4. A lovely pattern is stars – a bit of a trickier one this, but not too hard to master.  Daisy stitch is similar but harder!
5. Ripple stitch (I think this is more like a purl stitch zig zag patterns than ripples)
6. Diagonal stitch (opens a PDF) and Honeycomb (opens PDF), also textured heart and gull stitch (this looks amazing in two colours).
7. Twisted Trails

There are some other textured squares on this page and any number of stitch libraries online to use to make textured squares – for example this one and this one and the Vogue knitting library.

Alphabet letters

1. Alphabet letters – may not be sizeable to 6” without modification

Animals – cats

I got a bit carried away on cat patterns and did six of them.  I think they are mostly more suited to two colours (except the final pattern which is three colours!) rather than the pattern being purled on a knit background or vice versa like the sheep (see below).  The one exception is probably cat pattern 3.  There are currently two written patterns, for pattern 1 and pattern 3.

 Animals – mice

We also had a request for mice (which is actually what led to the profusion of cats)

• The cat’s a bit big but the mouse might be useful in this pattern
• Mouse face
• Mouse chart
• Mice peerie (I love this three colour fairisle stylee design with cheese on)
• Another mouse

Butterflies and Bees

• Butterfly Garden

Flowers

• Anything can be used to make a square pattern. These roses are based on pattern B of this sock pattern.
• Camilla pattern (camelia?) for mittens
• Lotus mittens
• Lilac mitten
• Snowdrops have been specially requested on a recent blanket – here is a snowdrop lace square and another (potentially the same design)
• Multi-colour snowdrop chart
• Lotus textured pattern

Hearts

Hearts were a bitof a theme on a previous set of blankets, when the lovely MinnieBar set us the challenge of working out how to do this heart with double yarn overs in the horizontal borders. We decided we didn’t like it and so I changed the border for something else and the Team Heart was born.  We’ve also simplified the pattern to remove the inner border entirely and this is available both as a chart and written instructions.

There are other heart patterns available however, notably Hearts Big and Small, Your Twisted Heart  and Another Heart for knitters.

Peanuts

We had a request for peanuts recently and found Little Miss Peanut, a chart peanut (that looks a bit like a fish) and I designed aPeanut Fairisle as well.

Sailing Boats

1. Sail boat square
2. Come sail away (this is lovely) – a chart and written pattern for a square can be found here
3. Rather nifty boat design on this jumper

Stars

1. The textured stars pattern is mentioned above
2. Starlight, star bright blanket pattern
3. Stars chart – probably too big to do for a blanket square but can be adapted.
4. Moon and stars two-colour chart
5. Star of David
6. Christmas stars (look nice at any time of year to me)
7. Crescent Moon and Star chart
8. Star illusion

Trees

1. Palm Tree
2. Oak Leaf
3. Fir cones
4. There is a nice Norwegian fir lace pattern in the Claire Compton books if you have them (see below)

All three of the next designs are similar and quite challenging to complete

2. Tree – should be known as Tree of Valium.
3. Twining Trees
4. Tree of life

Multi-colour patterns

Knitting in more than one colour is a topic in its own right as there are a number of different ways to manage the yarn, of which my favourite is fairisle.  If you fancy a bash, here are a few ideas:

1. Colourful spiral square – I’ve linked to my own one on Ravelry only because there’s no photo on the pattern’s page!
2. Checker square garter dishcloth
3. Linoleum dishcloth
4. Wavy stripes (crochet) (opens PDF)
5. Simple fairisle motifs

5. There are all manner of colour charts available for making motifs for squares

Other

6. Lacy mock cable
7. Harp we used for lemon truffles
8. Yarn Clouds
9. Raindrops
10. Lettuce leaf
11. Waves of love
12. Baby footprint
13. Slip cross cable with bobbles – try saying that after a couple of glasses of wine.
14. Bobbles and brambles.
15. Teddy bear
16. Joyful children
17. Mountain peaks (nearly as difficult as actual mountains)
18. Diamond Rib
19. Lean to the Left cloth
20. Spring breeze (crochet) (be patient, this is retrieved from the internet archive) A 7” pattern so will require modification
21. 16 Circles (crochet)
22. Dragonfly (crochet) – 12” square so will need modifying.