Judy's Magic Cast-On

Instructions for doing Judy's Magic Cast-On are at her blog, Persistent Illusion. She says:

These instructions assume that you have some familiarity with knitting socks toe-up. The pictures show the Magic Cast-On using two circular needles. Instructions for knitting two socks at the same time and for using the cast-on with DPNs are at the bottom.

I've been learning how to do Judy's Magic Cast-On, and practicing doing toe increases with leftover yarn from the Class Sock and my Hiya US #5 40 inch circular needles. One thing I've discovered is that it seems to make a difference the way I loop the yarn over the top needle for the first stitch.

Judy does it like this:



If the loop of the first stitch is twisted so the tail yarn is in front, and goes to the back over the index finger, then the first two loops are not tied-in to the rest of the cast-on. After you've finished casting-on the number of stitches you need for the toe, turn the needles over and look at the back. There should be purl bumps tying all the stitches together. The thing is, those first two stitches aren't tied in with the rest of the stitches.

This is how I do it:



If the loop of the first stitch is twisted so the working yarn is in front, and goes to the front over the thumb, then the first two loops are tied-in to the rest of the cast-on with purl bumps. Interesting, eh? I don't know if it makes any difference or not.



The thing to remember with Judy's Magic Cast-On is that after I've cast-on all the stitches, I turn the work so the working yarn is on the right, and the right-side (knit stitches) is facing me. I make sure to lock the tail yarn behind the working yarn. Then I slide the working needle out of the loops and knit the first side. Then I rotate the toe, and slide the needles around to do the second side. It is important to knit into the back side of these loops, otherwise they'll be twisted. This is the only side that has to be done that way.

The Magic Cast-On is actually really easy, once it's been done a few times, and after the first two sides have been knit (remembering to position the tail yarn properly, and to knit into the back of the loops on the second side), the toe increases can be started. In Melissa Morgan-Oakes' book, Toe-Up 2-at-a-Time Socks, she uses Backward Loop Increases. She calls them M1R and M1L. M1L is a left-leaning backward loop increase where the working yarn points towards me. M1R is a right-leaning backward loop increase where the working yarn points away from me. It isn't very difficult to do, but does require remembering which is which, since they are used on both sides of the toe. I just try to remember that the R in M1R means Rear (points away from me, to the rear).

So far, it's only taken me about ten tries to figure all this stuff out. That's ten toes cast-on, knitted, and frogged. It's good practice.