Painting with Wool: Intarsia?

Today I was going through my knitting books and I came across a two page spread in an issue of 'Golden Hands' - a series of books about different crafts which I believe was published in the 1970's. The picture was of a cardigan that had been knitted with lots of different colours of wool. But unlike knitting fairisle the different coloured wool strands were not carried along the back of the work.

The designer followed a basic cardi pattern and introduced wools in the same weight and type to create a random patchwork effect within the boundries of the actual pattern. Not only did it consist of multiple colours, but multiple textures/stitches too! The shapes weren't geometric either but simply (hah!) random patches of colour. I can imagine her (or him) sitting in a chair surrounded by dozens of little balls of wool.

Can you imagine the nightmare scenario - 1) to stop the balls from getting tangled and 2) weaving in all those itty bitty end's of wool. I wonder if this is what is called Insartia/intarsia? Need to look that one up me thinks.

Maybe I can incorporate a simple version of this technique into the bag making.......