When is a square not a square?

When it’s crocheted by me, that’s when!

Seriously…

I’ve been crocheting for four years now. I’ve successfully followed patterns labelled “Advanced”, and I’ve been fine.

So why does the simple “giant granny square” never look like an actual square when I do it?

The above is a WIP for a dog blanket for my friend. Eleven more rounds to go before the border.

See how pointy the ends look?

I know, from past experience, that it will look fine once I put the border on. It sort of “Squares up” then.

It’s the in-between part that I don’t get.

I wonder if it’s the technique I use. I tend to use my fingers to guide the hook through the stitches- not the hook itself. So, for example, if I’m “pulling up a loop” I do so by lifting the first loop over the head of the cochet hook with myfingers, instead of using the hook to guide it through that loop. Hope this makes sense.

As I said before, it makes no difference to the finished poduct: it just means that I can’t do any “nice” progress photos for this blanket.

Any suggestions would be gratefully received.