An afghan is a blanket or shawl, usually knitted or crocheted. 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.

Etymology

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. By 1860, Afghan as a noun, not an adjective, denoted a type of handicrafted object shown at state fairs and other exhibitions, along with patchwork and knitted quilts, and was being mentioned in novels: "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."

Types and styles

There are many styles of afghans: