Things I learned...

1) I still hate Red Heart
2) I still hate intarsia
3) When part of me wants to follow the pattern and another part of me has a "better idea," I should seriously LISTEN TO MYSELF
4) I can't count, apparently. Or more importantly, when it becomes obvious that I mis-counted, I should probably go back and fix it.
5) Thinking, "Well it's going to be perfect once I steam block it," does nothing when you're working in acrylic.

So yeah. Wasted a bit of time today.

But I'm not ready to let this Christmas stocking beat me. I am going to have a re-do (I'm not even saving the yarn; this puppy went straight to the bin.) in Paton's Classic. I'm not going to do the stupid increases the pattern told me to do, which contradicted the chart. I'm not going to start the letters right after the ribbing, in spite of the pattern's direction, and by God I'm going to count!
And then?
I'm going to steam block the hell out of it and it is going to be so much better than this.

Oh.
And I'm also going to have to go down a few needle sizes.