craftgrrl | Newbie knitting questions.

Okay, so my Hogwarts daydreams have reached fever pitch and I've decided I need a Ravenclaw scarf to accompany them. I found the most wonderful tutorial here, the girl is an absolute legend and is happy to share her pattern even though she's selling the things. However, I'm something of a knitting newbie, so I still have some questions.

Okay, my main confusion is with the stitch. I can do the basic knit stitch, cast on and cast off, my Nanna taught me the basics when I was about 6 or 7. But I don't understand how to make it look as gorgeous as the ones at that site.

I did some knitting the other day to remind myself, and it looks like this..

I don't know if you can make it out in the pic, but you can see rows running widthways, and on the ones on the site, you cant. It looks more like chains running down the length. Do I have to learn a new stitch to do that? Or if I do the normal stitch on the circular needles like her pattern says, will it look like that?

Also, I'm not quite sure about the wool and the weight of the thing.. I want it to be quite tight and fine stitching, sort of closer to a store-bought look than a lumpy home-made thing, and obviously 'cause I'm wearing it around my neck, I don't want it to itch or be too warm or heavy (I'm in Japan, not Siberia). So would I be better off with acrylic yarn, or a mix..?

Sorry this ended up so long, and also sorry if this has been asked before, I did look in the memories but I might've missed something.. Thanks!