With several different stitches, this is a nicely textured square. It’s four rounds, but after the fourth you can either move into making a solid granny square, or a normal one, up to you.
I found this particular one on Simple Daisy’s Youtube channel and while she and I disagree some on what to name the stitches, it’s a beautiful start of a blanket, pot holder or really anything.
16 double crochet into a beginning chain of 5 A puff stitch into each double crochet, separate with chain 1 A cluster into each puff stitch, separate with chain 2 Trebles, double crochet and half double crochet to create the square border
Stitches
The two special stitches you need to know are the puff stitch and the cluster.
For the puff stitch, you yarn over, insert the hook into the stitch, yarn over, pull through and tug on the stitch to lengthen it. Don’t pull through the loops.
For this particular puff stitch you insert the hook three times, but you can decide how many based on how thick you want it.
To finish the puff stitch, yarn over, pull through all loops and secure with a chain one.
The cluster stitch is often written as a <stitch><number>tog, since that will define what it uses more than just calling it a cluster stitch. However, the cluster is always in the same stitch, whereas the <stitch><number>tog can also be used as a decrease in a pattern, so that is something to be aware of.
This particular one is a dc4tog, and is done as follows:
Make a double crochet, but don’t pull through the final loop. Repeat this three more times (you should have five loops on the hook), then yarn over and pull through all five loops.
In other projects I’ve seen tr<number>tog, which is worked the same way: don’t pull through the final loop.
The one exception is if it’s a hdc<number>tog, because you don’t pull through any loops before continuing to the next stitch.