Bee is for Beata!

I had a very cool skein of yarn from Insubordiknit that I had been stashing for quite some while. It's a self striping waspy colored yarn with little bumble bees made of ribbon spun into it. My friend Beata (Tango cellist extraordinaire visiting from Sweden), saw the yarn and loved it, so we decided she should have it as a scarf.
Umm...the pink felt heart is an address tag, because the last scarf I made her unfortunately ran away...

I really wanted to make some mittens for me, but the bf wanted a new scarf, so I'm trying the My So-Called Scarf. Colorway Manos del Uruguay Jungle Multi.

There are three things that are bothering me with this pattern:
1) It slants upwards on the left
2) No matter how tightly I cast on, the nature of the stitch pattern draws it in so that the cast on row flares out.
3) the sides look "rustic"

I've studied pics of this scarf on other blogs, and have seen those same problems. I'm hoping that blocking and a crochetted edge will cure it of its ills, so we'll see. I do agree that the stitch pattern shows off the Manos well. My skeins looked too different, so I had to alternate between rows, which I really hate having to do, but if the bf likes it, it's worth it. Right? Right?