If you're from the Midwest, the odds are good that you have at least one afghan blanket rattling around your house. In my experience, they reached the peak of popularity in the 1970's; the decade of all things garish and mostly ugly. Moms and grandmas went nuts with these things. The colors were decade appropriate i.e shit brown, burnt orange, avocado green, or every color imaginable put together in a schizophrenic Holly Hobby patchwork nightmare. An afghan is basically any knitted blanket. I do