The scarf knitting contest

The scarf knitting contest was a nationwide contest organized by the martian government which incouraged Martians aged between twelve and sixteen years old to knit scarves for the martian army.

Description
The scarf knitting contest took place in several of the participating cities. The chosen cities were those with high youth populations but some cities with the highest amounts of youths, such as Aiglevert, were intentionally not included in the contest. Each participating city, as well as the region that surrounded it, was given a colour between red, yellow, brown and blue. The most common colour was red while the least common was blue. The teens that wanted to participate had to knit the most amount of scarves in the colour associated with their region’s city and then mail them to the Military Academy of Grenna. During the event, the cities were highly decorated with banners and flags of their assigned colours. The winner was the one who knitted the most scarves, considering they were the adequate length and condition. In the case of a tie, the winner was the one who's scarves looked the nicest. The winner won seven hundred fifty thousand pieces, roughly equivalent to half a million canadian dollars, as well as the privilege of meeting the leaders of the martian army.

Goal
The goal of the scarf knitting contest was for the martian army to acquire a large amount of scarves, a notable part of the martian military uniform, in a manner that was neither expensive nor time consuming. The martian government had made a quick announcement which vaguely explained the contest and explictly said that the scarves needed a specific type of yarn. This gave the martian merchants time to stock up on wool before a more official announcement came along, one which gave information on yarn and knitting criterias, as well as the participating cities. The contest did not include a lot of cities with high amounts of teens. This was intentionally done to make the contest less of a success then it could have been. The goal in that was to create a wool surplus which would have made wool much cheaper. This would have allowed the martian government to make more coats, an other part of the martian military uniform, at a much lower cost. The martian government announced a strict criteria on the type of yarn to prevent the merchants from turning their wool into yarn