Two decades ago P. Martin and D. Woodcock made a surprising and prophetic link between statistical mechanics and representation theory. They observed that the decomposition numbers of the blob algebra (that appeared in the context of transfer matrix algebras) are Kazhdan-Lusztig polynomials in type $\tilde{A}_1$. In this paper we take that observation far beyond its original scope. We conjecture that for $\tilde{A}_n$ there is an equivalence of categories between the characteristic $p$ diagrammatic Hecke category and a "blob category" that we introduce (using certain quotients of KLR algebras called \emph{generalized blob algebras}). Using alcove geometry we prove the "graded degree" part of this equivalence for all $n$ and all prime numbers $p$. If our conjecture was verified, it would imply that the graded decomposition numbers of the generalized blob algebras in characteristic $p$ give the $p$-Kazhdan Lusztig polynomials in type $\tilde{A}_n$. We prove this for $\tilde{A}_1$, the only case where the $p$-Kazhdan Lusztig polynomials are known.

43 pages, many figures, best viewed in color. Accepted for publication in the Proceedings of the LMS