My inspiration for this afghan square is from 1902 Butterick’s Fancy and Practical Knitting, p.69. I challenged myself to create a version with fewer rows and different stitches but staying with simple slip, knit and purl patterns.
The small sample is 4” square. I also made an 8” square from the exact same pattern with worsted yarn on U.S. #9 needles. Bigger yarn and needles will save you a LOT of time when making a big project! At any size, a single Simple Simon square takes less than 3 hours to make.

Skills needed: cast on, slip stitch, knit, purl, kf&b (knit front and back of 1 stitch), yarn over, k2tog and k3tog.

Gauge is not important in this pattern. Any block-able thread/yarn will work. Make a swatch to check size and appearance. What IS important is to block all squares to the same size before sewing together.

29 yards of #10 crochet cotton thread will make one 4” afghan square at 8 stitches/inch and 16 rows/inch in blocked garter stitch on U.S. #2 (2.75mm) needles.

57 yards of Lion brand 24/7 Cotton will make one 8” afghan square at 4.5 stitches/inch and 9 rows/inch in blocked garter stitch on U.S. #9 (5.5mm) needles.
One 186-yard/170m 24/7 Cotton skein will make 3 complete squares.