 |
 An afghan blanket made using the ripple crochet stitch | |
| Type | Bedding |
|---|---|
| Material | Wool |
| Production method | Knitting or crocheting |
| Production process | Handicraft |
| Place of origin | Afghanistan |
An afghan is a blanket or shawl, usually knitted or crocheted. [1] It is sometimes also called a "throw" of indeterminate size. Afghans are often used as bedspreads, or as a decoration on the back of couches or chairs. [2]
The word afghan refers to the people of Afghanistan. The use of afghan in the English language for a textile object goes back to at least 1831, when Thomas Carlyle mentioned "Afghan shawls" in his Sartor Resartus . [3] By 1860, Afghan as a noun, not an adjective, denoted a type of handicrafted object shown at state fairs and other exhibitions, [4] along with patchwork and knitted quilts, and was being mentioned in novels: [5]
There is a fashion, I observe, in these things; and her work was a sort I perceive to have become very fashionable of late--the netting of soft wools into various articles for women's heads and shoulders, and even into cloaks and large shawls or blankets--Afghans, Lilly says they call them--to be worn as protection against dust in summer drives.
There are many styles of afghans:
Crochet is a process of creating textiles by using a crochet hook to interlock loops of yarn, thread, or strands of other materials. The name is derived from the French term crochet, meaning 'hook'. Hooks can be made from a variety of materials, such as metal, wood, bamboo, bone or plastic. The key difference between crochet and knitting, beyond the implements used for their production, is that each stitch in crochet is completed before the next one is begun, while knitting keeps many stitches open at a time. Some variant forms of crochet, such as Tunisian crochet and broomstick lace, do keep multiple crochet stitches open at a time.
A dandy is a man who places particular importance upon physical appearance and personal grooming, refined language and leisurely hobbies. A dandy could be a self-made man in person and persona, who imitated an aristocratic style of life, despite his middle-class origin, birth, and background, especially in the Britain of the late-18th and early-19th centuries.
Knitting is a method for production of textile fabrics by interlacing yarn loops with loops of the same or other yarns. It is used to create many types of garments. Knitting may be done by hand or by machine.
Tatting is a technique for handcrafting a particularly durable lace from a series of knots and loops. Tatting can be used to make lace edging as well as doilies, collars, accessories such as earrings and necklaces, and other decorative pieces. The lace is formed by a pattern of rings and chains formed from a series of cow hitch or half-hitch knots, called double stitches, over a core thread. Gaps can be left between the stitches to form picots, which are used for practical construction as well as decorative effect.
Yarn is a long continuous length of interlocked fibres, used in sewing, crocheting, knitting, weaving, embroidery, ropemaking, and the production of textiles. Thread is a type of yarn intended for sewing by hand or machine. Modern manufactured sewing threads may be finished with wax or other lubricants to withstand the stresses involved in sewing. Embroidery threads are yarns specifically designed for needlework. Yarn can be made of a number of natural or synthetic materials, and comes in a variety of colors and thicknesses. Although yarn may be dyed different colours, most yarns are solid coloured with a uniform hue.
Paisley or paisley pattern is an ornamental textile design using the boteh or buta, a teardrop-shaped motif with a curved upper end. Of Persian origin, paisley designs became popular in the West in the 18th and 19th centuries, following imports of post–Mughal Empire versions of the design from India, especially in the form of Kashmir shawls, and were then replicated locally.
Cashmere wool, usually simply known as cashmere, is a fiber obtained from cashmere goats, pashmina goats, and some other breeds of goat. It has been used to make yarn, textiles and clothing for hundreds of years. Cashmere is closely associated with the Kashmir shawl, the word "cashmere" deriving from an anglicization of Kashmir, when the Kashmir shawl reached Europe in the 19th century. Both the soft undercoat and the guard hairs may be used; the softer hair is reserved for textiles, while the coarse guard hair is used for brushes and other non-apparel purposes.
A blanket is a swath of soft cloth large enough either to cover or to enfold most of the user's body and thick enough to keep the body warm by trapping radiant body heat that otherwise would be lost through convection.
Sartor Resartus: The Life and Opinions of Herr Teufelsdröckh in Three Books is an 1831 novel by the Scottish essayist, historian and philosopher Thomas Carlyle, first published as a serial in Fraser's Magazine in November 1833 – August 1834. The novel purports to be a commentary on the thought and early life of a German philosopher called Diogenes Teufelsdröckh, author of a tome entitled Clothes: Their Origin and Influence. Teufelsdröckh's Transcendentalist musings are mulled over by a sceptical English Reviewer who also provides fragmentary biographical material on the philosopher. The work is, in part, a parody of Hegel, and of German Idealism more generally.
A shawl is a simple item of clothing, loosely worn over the shoulders, upper body and arms, and sometimes also over the head. It is usually a rectangular or square piece of cloth, which is often folded to make a triangle, but can also be triangular in shape. Other shapes include oblong shawls. It is associated with the inhabitants of the northern Indian subcontinent—particularly Kashmir and Punjab—and Central Asia, but can be found in many other parts of the world.
Hairpin lace is a lace-making technique that uses a crochet hook and two parallel metal rods held at the top and the bottom by removable bars. Historically, a metal U-shaped eponymous hairpin was used.
Company's Coming is a popular line of cookbooks that has sold over 30 million copies since 1981. The series is produced by Company's Coming Publishing Limited based in Edmonton, Alberta. The series was written by Jean Paré.
Edmund Joseph Sullivan (1869–1933), usually known as E. J. Sullivan, was a British book illustrator who worked in a style which merged the British tradition of illustration from the 1860s with aspects of Art Nouveau.
Nicky Epstein is a knitting designer and author of books on knitting. She is known for her creative combinations of knitting stitches, and for the colorful patterns often found in her sweaters, especially involving applique of separately knitted motifs. In 2005, she was given an award by the National NeedleArts Association. In 2006, her work was included in a retrospective fashion show at the Museum of Arts and Design in New York City. Since the (winter) Holiday 2005 issue, Epstein has written a regular column in Vogue Knitting called "Nicky Epstein".
A granny square is a piece of square fabric produced in crochet by working in rounds from the center outward. Granny squares are traditionally handmade as crochet and cannot be manufactured by machine. They resemble coarse lace. Although there is no theoretical limit to the maximum size of a granny square, crocheters usually create multiple small squares and assemble the pieces to make clothing, purses, Afghan blankets, and other household textiles.
Hand knitting is a form of knitting, in which the knitted fabric is produced by hand using needles.
In the textile arts, a motif is a smaller element in a much larger work. In knitting and crochet, motifs are made one at a time and joined together to create larger works such as afghan blankets or shawls. An example of a motif is the granny square. Motifs may be varied or rotated for contrast and variety, or to create new shapes, as with quilt blocks in quilts and quilting. Contrast with motif-less crazy quilting.
Knit the City is a group of "graffiti knitting and crochet" street artists founded in London, England in 2009. The collective is credited with being the first to go beyond the simple 'cosies' of early graffiti knitting to tell 'stitched stories', using knitted and crochet amigurumi creatures and objects in their public installations. This practice has been taken up by groups internationally.
Cat Mazza is an American textile artist. Her practice combines tactical media, activism, craft-based art making and animation in a form that has frequently been described as craftivism. She is the founder of the craftivist collective microRevolt. Mazza is an associate professor of art at the University of Massachusetts Boston.
Pin weaving is a form of small-scale weaving traditionally done on a frame made of pins; the warp and weft are wrapped around the pins. Pin-woven textiles have a selvage edge all the way around.
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