Simple problems with motion tweening

I'm having some issues with motion tweens, and I can't find an answer.

1) When you enlarge a motion tween, it gets bigger quickly at first, then slows down drastically the bigger it gets. I've tried everything I can think of, like making it ridiculously bigger, to try and speed it up, but it always hits a threshold, getting bigger quickly at first then slowing down extremely until it reaches the specified size. Is there any way to make the motion more uniform?

2) I'm basically trying to animate a digging shovel, at a downward angle at first (to dig), then rotating up to a upward angle (to throw the dirt), then back down. The only problem is when I use the free transform tool to angle it upwards from its starting position, instead of going smoothly from down to up, it rotates all the way around the opposite way. I've experimented with it, and it does what I want until I rotate it past the horizontal position. Then it must think I want it to rotate the opposite way for some reason. I've also tried messing with the "clockwise" and "counter clockwise" rotation in properties, but that makes it rotate once all the way around. What do I need to do to stop it from rotating it all the way around the opposite direction, and do what I am actually asking it to do?

In both of these instances, I'm using the free transform tool to animate motion.