Hokay, for real this time: Restarted completely because it was really not working. The corners looked like arrows, not squares.

Restarted mid-August, going to see how long the stranded and intarsia take - will probably be the rest of my knitting life.

Final center details: 1725 grams of yarn. 17.71 skeins of red, 17.24 gray.
Edging: 5.76 gray. Wow.

Border: Pick up 1 for every CO/BO stitch, 3 for every 2 slipped edge sts (1215 total), K 1 row, increase at corners 1 row, repeat two rows until desired width (9 rows?), purl one row, decrease at corners 1 row, K 1 row, repeat until same length as increased half, bind off with k2tog BO.

Cut fleece backing to fit, tuck inside folded border, sew shut and enjoy! Love, love, love this finishing method. Will have to try it again sometime!

First Attempt

Go big or go home, right? Going for the biathlon because, well, if I’m gonna finish the sample for a blanket (which is something that doesn’t need math to change measurements) I may as well finish up the pattern and offer it up on Ravelry.

Day 1: Swatch done, blocking, initial measurements taken.

Day 2: Square 1 of 9 complete, easiest square, this one is all one solid color. Using measurements from Square 1, pattern for remaining 8 squares designed. Stitch numbers do not line up for Square 1, rip back, realize I switched the MC and CC, sadness.

Day 3: Re-start, with correct color this time.

Day 6: Square #1 almost finished. Timeline shot to hell. Each square requires 13,120 stitches. Whose bright idea was to do this as an Olympic project anyway?

Yarn tallies
Square #1: 3+ skeins of gray
Squares #2-9: almost 2 skeins of gray, just over 2 skeins of red