here's a question though - how do i add in the contrasting color after the 8 or 9 rows of black?

Well, I just sort of start knitting with the new color. So when I come to the black stitch that needs a green stitch on top of it, I stick my needle in as if to knit, but loop some green yarn over the top instead of looping black yarn, and pull it through. Then, I weave in the end through the wrong side of the work.  Also, when you come to the boundary between two yarn colors, you should "twist" the yarns together, meaning that you just wrap one yarn ball over the other before you start knitting again, so that the two strands are locked together.

I made this diagram:

(ugh, sorry it's smooshed. Click here to see a bigger version.

I tried to number each section in the order that you'd start that mini-ball of yarn, although I didn't really take in to account the direction of the rows. So you start with Ball 1 for a few rows, then on row 9 you add ball 2 for one stitch, then start ball 3 (same color as ball 1, but different section of the pattern), switch to green with Ball 4, then back to black with ball 5, and so on.

On row 14, for example, you'll knit with the strand from Ball 1, then drop it and knit with the strand from ball 2, then Ball 3, then 7, then 6, then 4, then 5.  If there's just a few stitches of one color in the middle of another, you can just use one strand for a few stitches without having to start and stop another ball.

KnittingHelp.com has a video about intarsia - I haven't watched it yet, but I'm sure it's excellent.

You might want to start with a smaller intarsia project first, until you get the hang of visualizing the different blocks of color. (of course, I can't really FIND any patterns right now! gah.)

Can you read charts? I made this chart (which essentially shows what wootwoot is describing and what they did in the hat).



This shows just the left half of a small hat, knit in the round. You'd have to repeat this pattern one time to make a full hat.

Row 1: normal k1, p1 repeating
Row 2: When you get to the side seam, you see a (p1, k1) that you have to decrease, so you use a ssp, paired with a k2tog.
Row 3: normal
Row 4: This time, when you get to the seam stitches, you'll see a (k1, p1), so you do the opposite of in Row 2 - you ssk, followed by a p2tog.
...(and so on)

In the chart, you can see that the purl stitches are all stacked on top of each other and the knit stitches are all stacked on top of each other, so it'll look nice. In the real hat, the columns of stitches will actually point towards the peak of the hat in a chevron shape, but that's hard to show!

In this pattern, you'll be decreasing 4 stitches every second row. You can decrease more gradually by decreasing 4 stitches every 3 rows; or you can decrease more quickly by decreasing 8 stitches every 2 rows (repeating this pattern 4 times, essentially making 4 seams).

I finished my first pair of socks, which I knit for my fiance (not my boyfriend anymore, but the title is catchier).



I hope the sweater curse doesn't apply to footwear! I used about 1-1/2 balls of Regia Stripe, Blue-green colorway, on size 2 needles. I didn't use any one specific pattern - I concatenated a few different top-down sock patterns, including from Silver's Sock Class.

My fiance claims I was too impatient and I knit the legs too short. Next time I knit socks for my Significant Other, I'll do them toe up so he can decide how high he wants them! But otherwise he says their perfect (although it's too hot for him to wear them yet!)



You can see from this picture that the stripes don't match up exactly; I'm trying to let that go and not obsess about it. There's a little bit more info about other problems I had with this sock at the completion post on my blog.

I finished my very own Branching Out! It took me about 3 weeks, off and on.



I used up about 1/2 a skein of Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool (the color is Claret), and it came out to be the perfect length for a headband or faux-ascot. Now, I can make another lacy scarfelet in the same color.



There are more details in a post on my blog.

Done!

I've learned so much from this project! I can see my progress as a knitter from the beginning to the end. More pictures and a write-up are posted on my blog.

Edited so that I don't sound like a doofus.

I've finished 10 repeats of the increase section. I'll do two more and then measure the length.

I'm super excited about getting to the decrease rows! I meant to give this away, but I just don't know if I can part with it.