Knitting in the round....again!

[to-my-wife.livejournal.com]

As you might already know as I always seem to be looking for help in relation to it, I'm knitting this striped scarf and it's my first forage into knitting in the round.



This is the picture from the website, showing the lovely straight columns of stitches:



And this is what my scarf is looking like:



Notice the slight slant to the right of the column of stitches?

Is this something I've done wrong, or is it normal? Can it be straightened out by washing and stretching it out when it's finished, as it says in the pattern? (I'm using acrylic, if that makes any difference - I've heard that only natural fibres can be blocked, and this sounds a little like blocking).



Thanks in advance for any help you guys can offer! And thanks for your patience in helping me with all my questions. I promise a picture of it when it's finished!

x-posted to knitting


EDIT: It looks like my problem might be that I'm twisting my stitches by picking them up through the loop in the back rather than the front. Oops! I've decided to restart the scarf, knitting the stitches from the front this time. A sincere thank you to everyone who's taken time to help me out, I really appreciate it :o)