The design is a log cabin-based blanket which renders all 26 letters of the English alphabet into rectangles, parallelograms and triangles. There are no purl stitches of any kind in this pattern.

The original was knit in primary colors, but it would also look wonderful in jewel tones and gray, earth tones and beige, pastels, etc. Wool would work as well as acrylic, but if you intend to give this to a child, I beg you to select a yarn that is machine washable and dryable.

Re: Gauge -- What’s really critical for this project is that the height of each ridge (i.e. each pair of rows) is equal to the width of a single stitch. Most yarns in garter stitch with a reasonably-sized needle will produce this ratio, but swatching to check is always wise before you spend a year knitting it.