Tea and Cakes

I’m not having a massively successful knitting day so far. I started socks, then went wrong, and was struggling with getting the needles through the k2togs, so I ripped it out, and have decided that it really would be more sensible to go for a simple rib pattern for my second pair, rather than the lovely pattern that my secret pal directed me to, which isn’t really tricky, but probably requires more attention than I’m going to be able to give it. (I want to be working on these socks when I’m away from home on a 3 day course, so I expect my brain to be a bit mushed in the evenings.)

In grandma 90th birthday present news, I decided to make a scarf, because those are pretty simple, and an octagonal washcloth from the mason dixon book, which I haven’t cast on for yet, but will very soon. Perhaps tomorrow. When I was down in Galway I visited Yarn and bought some Rowan Soft Baby in a pale blue. This is the softest wool I have ever felt and is perfect for a light, soft and warm scarf.

I was thinking something lacy (one thing I know I can do is yarnovers, ssk and k2togs – ok, that’s 3 things, but you get the point), but there’s a lovely single cable scarf in One Skein that I thought might work better with the yarn. In the book it’s knit in cotton, but of about the same size yarn.

Anyway, here’s how it’s looking after 3 pattern repeats (it’ a fairly safe bet that she won’t be reading this):
Front

Back

I’m just not happy with it. It’s lovely and soft, but my ribs are a bit loose, and I don’t like the cable at the back. I’m not sure if I should be twisting the cable needle so I’m knitting the stitches off it in reverse order to complete the cable on both sides (Does that make sense), or if it’s supposed to be like that. I’m not sure if I should go down a needle size. Maybe it’d sort itself out with careful blocking.
I have this horrible feeling that I should rip it out and start again, but as I’ve just ripped back the sock too I have to wonder if maybe it’s just the mood I’m in.

Any thoughts?