The Log Cabin was my beloved mother-in-law’s favourite quilt pattern, and she passed the fondness onto me—to such an extent that I have already published the pattern for one. But the previous version (in The Color Book) required buying I-don’t-know-how-many colours of yarn and coordinating them … plus sewing in all those tails because each segment was a different colour.

With this afghan, I used a yarn (Katia Azteca) whose colour movement does the work: the lights move beautifully, the darks move beautifully—never too much, but not so little as to be monochromatic. It meant fewer decisions and fewer tails with a beautiful result.

You could certainly find another yarn that does this—or choose colours without as much contrast—and since gauge does not matter the pattern will still work. The point is to let the yarn do the work!

The pattern with more tails referred to in the pattern is Cynthia’s Afghan.