Spiraling on circular project

[Grungie]

I'm knitting a little ribbed stocking cap for my son using DPNs. I'm noticing that the ribs (I'm using a K2 P2 rib) are slanting to one side the further up I go making the hat look twisted. In fact, all of my circular projects seem to have a bit of slant, but it seems to be more pronounced with the ribbing. Is there any way to avoid this?

[cretin]

What gauge are yer needles?

[janelanespaintbrush]

It might be the yarn you're using.

[knitqueen]

I know what you mean, I notice that with ribbing in the round too. Once finished and off the needles it should be perfectly fine.

[Grungie]

Needles are size US size 7 or 8 (can't remember) and yarn is Lion Wool-Ease (worsted weight.) I tried using the recommended needle size on the yarn so my stitches weren't too tight--I had originally thought that was the problem. I've tried to find out if this is something that "just happens" when knitting in the round but my knitting never seems to look like pictures in how-to books.

[janelanespaintbrush]

I thought that maybe the yarn was spun too tightly, but wool-ease is so commonly used that I think if it were a problem, we'd be aware of it.

Hm... it's probably a long shot but do you suppose it's possible that your stitches are getting shifted a little so you end up with this:

vv--vv--vv--vv--vv--vv--vv--vv--
v--vv--vv--vv--vv--vv--vv--vv--v
--vv--vv--vv--vv--vv--vv--vv--vv

instead of this:

vv--vv--vv--vv--vv--vv--vv--vv--
vv--vv--vv--vv--vv--vv--vv--vv--
vv--vv--vv--vv--vv--vv--vv--vv--

KWIM? The top one is just off by one stitch each round making the ribbing look sort of twisted. If you miscounted or dropped a stitch somewhere, something like that might have happened. Believe it or not, that type of stitch pattern is intentionally used sometimes for socks -- it's called spiral rib.

[Hildegard_von_Knittin]

sometimes it's just the twist of the yarn.... it Instead of your knit sitches looking like this:
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they look like this
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or this:
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