My fear of patterns

What you see here is my new scarf. It's for my grandmother. Yes, I only have one grandmother left, and no, she's not getting two scarves. I'm setting the lacey scarf aside right now for two reasons. Those reasons being that 1. I don't think the yarn is soft enough to be a scarf. Really, I'm not sure what it's good for. What do you use scratchy fingering weight yarn for? Something I guess you're going to line. Seeing as how my sewing skills are sketchy at best right now, and I do not own a sewing machine, I'm not lining crap right now.
And 2. I don't think that the yarn is right for the pattern. I really, really love this pattern and I would rather see it out of something lovely and wearable and strong and durable, than out of some flimsy yarn. So now, I have 100g of that tan, sweet, soft alpaca yarn, and 100g of scratchy yellow stuff. I'm not sure what to do with it.
So, in a fit of being unhappy all around with the other scarf and finding this pattern online yesterday, I decided I could make nice scarves that would be usable in the forseeable future. As opposed to the openwork, scratchy wool in a color having nothing to do with winter.
This is the results of a few hours of knitting with Grumperina's tutorial in front of me. It was amazingly easy. I mean, before, I was so scared of cables that I wouldn't even read the pattern when I saw cables. Yeah, I had heard it was easy, but no one tells you why it's easy. It's easy because it's ribbing with one funky thing every few rows. Who knew? (okay everyone knew, but that's not the point)
Anyhow, I could have gotten even more done if I hadn't twisted the cables the wrong way the first time. I didn't think that it mattered that much, but I found that twisting the cables the correct way was easier because you pick the stitches back up in the front, as opposed to the back. The funny thing is that what I find the hardest about cabling is getting my needle back into the three stitches to cross them. Not the acrobatics or the memorization, just shoving the needle in the loops. I sit there for the longest time trying to get through that third loop. I think if I needed to cable 8 or more, I'd have to use a needle. Perhaps I will be singing a different tune after I finish this scarf.
The yarn is Cascade 220, which I really love. I wanted the cables to really pop and so I though it needed to be a good sturdy yarn, but it's a scarf and I wanted it to be soft too. I think this is the best of both worlds, especially when you consider that most of the world isn't allergic to wool, like me =) Even I think this is fairly soft. So I bought two skeins of this heathered purple for this and two skeins for Midwest Moonlight from Scarf Style. I normally wouldn't buy pink or consider this pattern, but Subway Knitter inspired me. Her scarf is really pretty, but I fell in love with a darker, heathered pink at the store (I think those little picture frames did something to my brain.....I hope it stops, because I look terrible in pink and purple). At least they're not for the same person, however they do live in the same house. I figure as long as they don't stand close together whilst wearing them they won't make too many people run crying into the streets.
One final thing...
These two knits are for my Aunt and my Grandmother, who dwell in the same house as my Grandfather. Do we see a problem here? Am I now signing myself up for another Christmas knit? I think I did (inserts string of obscenities worthy of a sailor here). Well, at least they have post-poned Christmas until their kitchen is done. Let's hope the contractor is real slow.