If the problem goes away without applying new rosin, I’d hesitate to say it's a lack of rosin. It could be too much buildup, but it doesn't quite make sense if it's not happening consistently. 

What happens to the sound when the bow is sliding ? Do you still produce a clear tone or does it whistle or cut out?

I'd rosin the bow a bit. You might also try to keep the bow more loosely held in the fingers but still tight enough, of course, to keep it from crashing to the ground. In any case, yeah, it can be a bit tricky to achieve the proper arm/wrist/finger coordination. Keep working at it!

Have you considered a consistent warm-up routine to your practice? My old reliable when I know my hands and wrists are stiff is to manually wash the dishes. Other people play scales or long slow bows. I also like some descending scales I made up of double stops. I've been fairly hard on my hands all my life, so stiffness is not an occasional thing for me. My bowing hand has always lacked subtlety and it doesn't take much to make it clumsy. I have to watch the bow at the bridge mostly to keep my bowing in line.

"Bowing around the corner" and not "keeping an eye on the sounding point" are the two main culprits for fiddlers imo. (Myself included).

"Bowing round the corner" : Bowing in an arc rather than at 90 deg to the string

"Eye on sounding point" : once a player learns to play at 90deg to the string, keeping the bow at one point on the string for a given passage, and adjusting the speed and weight of the bow to get the best tone from the point at which you are bowing the string.

Having a look in the mirror and looking at the sounding point sorts both out

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Originally posted by mikeburns

Sometimes when I practice, my bow will slide back & forth from side to side on the strings, especially the E string. It's usually not a problem, but occasionally it is, like this morning. I have always assumed, maybe incorrectly, that it probably had something to do with rosin. I probably assumed this because it's only an occasional problem. Can this be caused by too much, or too little rosin on the bow, or by rosin build up on the strings? Maybe it's something I'm doing, but if so, I can't figure out why it just happens once in a while.

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It's often generally a inconsistent bow control, balance between weight, speed but involves stickiness.

With a a bit too little rosin, can still dig in, add weight/speed and still make work, but if back off even a little, will slide. For beginners, that's why it might seem random, but might be inconsistence in bow weight/control as issue why works some days, not others.. The other way with excess/built up rosin can be weird. It can form a bit of glaze, and become less sticky, but then friction of bow can be enough to warm sort of melt it and esp if dig in can become sticky, which can then maybe start to sound a bit scritchy, causing inclination to back off too much. I find easier to just wipe away the old rosin. 

For beginners, with less bow control, can be struggle with finding sweet spot. Usually as get better with bow control, can make wider range of rosin work.

It is all about the bow.. maybe not enough rosin.. maybe holding too tight at the frog, maybe not having good practice technique...maybe using a lot of bow when a little bow is enough, but probably...lack of good practise technique..WATCH your bow when you play.. see what it is doing and note what You are doing when that happens..

Could be mayonnaise on the bow?

Sounds like typical bow-hair mights.  Watch to see which ones you have - one might seems to push the bow this direction - and another might pulls the bow in the opposite direction.  Either might be a problem.    (yeah - I know.  sorry...)

I a total novice and also sometimes have issues with the bow sliding up and down the strings. Some things I've noticed--

A little more rosin sometimes helps. I suspect a bit more resistance both pulling and pushing the bow is why this helps.

Warming up with simply bowing definitely helps a lot.

Of course paying attention to technique helps a lot. Make sure wrist is loose and the bow is moving back and forth and not arcing helps.

And one thing big with any practice in anything is skill isolation. You can't work on multiple things at once. Sometimes when I'm trying to play a more intricate phrase with my left hand than I'm used to my bowing technique suffers. So then I have to stop and concentrate just on my bowing. So always spend some of your practice time on just bowing technique.

I'm not sure if it's good or bad to rely on vision. I will occasionally watch the bow contact point to make sure it doesn't drift and stays halfway between the bridge and the end of the fingerboard.

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Originally posted by learn2turn

I a total novice and also sometimes have issues with the bow sliding up and down the strings. Some things I've noticed--

A little more rosin sometimes helps. I suspect a bit more resistance both pulling and pushing the bow is why this helps.

Warming up with simply bowing definitely helps a lot.

Of course paying attention to technique helps a lot. Make sure wrist is loose and the bow is moving back and forth and not arcing helps.

And one thing big with any practice in anything is skill isolation. You can't work on multiple things at once. Sometimes when I'm trying to play a more intricate phrase with my left hand than I'm used to my bowing technique suffers. So then I have to stop and concentrate just on my bowing. So always spend some of your practice time on just bowing technique.

I'm not sure if it's good or bad to rely on vision. I will occasionally watch the bow contact point to make sure it doesn't drift and stays halfway between the bridge and the end of the fingerboard.

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I'd just add that if the bow is sliding vertically, it's a good idea to pay attention to where the scroll is pointing--if it's down toward the ground, the bow will slide toward the fingerboard as it follows gravity unless you're making a concerted effort to counteract its inclination. 

Thanks for adding that. That's another thing I'm just starting to pay attention to, keeping the instrument on a horitonal plane.

-K

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Originally posted by learn2turn

...I'm not sure if it's good or bad to rely on vision. I will occasionally watch the bow contact point to make sure it doesn't drift and stays halfway between the bridge and the end of the fingerboard.

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To be precise, I find myself looking through my bow just a bit past the fiddle body itself.  I'm not really focusing on the bow.  I'm actually trying to train myself not to twist my face towards the fiddle to watch.  Long term consequences to that, I have discovered, and monitoring the bow's alignment is paying off.

If your bow is slipping toward the fingerboard, try holding the scroll up higher so gravity isn't causing it to slip downhill. Also make sure you are using elbow motion for a straight pull across the strings, not arc bowing from a locked elbow which causes the bow not to be always perpendicular to the strings. Also make sure your bow hold is correct and hair is flat or tilted slightly forward, never tilted backward.