Most people learn form others....or by trial and error.
I suggest you get a couple of colors of yarn and practise and see what happens.
Linda C

The old trial and error method produces only errors. If you can't find someone to show you, then get the following books: Knitting in Plain English by Maggie Righetti. I guarantee you you will be fascinated and you'll be knitting so much better after you read what she has to say. I've been knitting for 44 years and her books are Gospel for me.

Thanks to you both for your replies. :)

I plan to go out and find that book you suggested this weekend. I have two other books that just confuse the heck out of me!

I'm still hoping to find someone to help me learn because in my experience, trial and error does result in error. For more talented knitters, it might work, but not for me.

anyone else have any good suggestions for other books or perhaps where i could find a video or something to help me out?

http://www.sweaterscapes.com/intars.htm
This is for learning Intarsia. I hope it helps.

I agree with nopastels that finding an instructor might be your best bet. Have you tried micheals or acmoore? They are likely to have knitting classes, or at least someone on staff who knits, and can show you the ropes.

I have found the book I turn to most often is the Readers Digest Enclyclopedia of knitting. I've been knitting for many years, and the best thing about this book is that it gives a variety of different techniques and discusses when to use each one (different methods of casting on, casting off, changing colors, etc).

The three things to remmeber about all those crazy directions for color changing are
1) you're trying to hide the yarn that's not in use
2) you've got the twist the colors around each other so the different sections of finished material are attached to each other, not just lying next to each other
3) you'll want to make sure the unused color doesn't have long floats that can snag.

All the different instructions are just descriptions of how to do these things. And of course, everone's got different techniques they prefer, and every book descibes these techniques differently.

Good luck - and enjoy intarsia! It is trememdous fun to work with colors when you get the hang of it