To chart the image on this sweater, I made the rookie mistake of using knitting graph paper and colored pencils, unaware that knitting design software now exists that would have made my life considerably easier and this project far less time-consuming. As it was, however, my old-school tactics allowed me to tape the chart up on my studio wall while I was working on it and linger with the design. I could step away, see how the image was coming together, and make adjustments that helped add dimension and depth. If you’re interested in working intarsia creations of your own, I encourage you to embrace Walker’s advice with this square-set template and “give your imaginations free rein.” Consider letting your yarn choice guide the images you select to depict as I did here. The moment I held a hank of Shibui’s Heichi in brownstone in my hands, I saw the striking colorings of a fox and everything else quickly fell into place.

• It’s useful to note that if you have an aversion to intarsia and just don’t like doing it, working the fox in duplicate stitch would be a great alternative to consider. You could simply work the duplicate stitches in a lighter weight yarn (using the Heichi for duplicates would be too bulky) but any like-colored lighter weight yarn would work well.